PS 3527 

184 S5 — — — ^ 

1917 
Copy 1 

I Soldier 



Songs 




i 

I I 

i "By 

'David Chalmers cNjmmo | 



SOLDIER SONGS 



BY 

DAVID CHALMERS NIMMO 

Author of 

"Nature Songs," "Home Songs," 
'Soul Songs," "Civic Songs," "Songs and Tales," etCo 



Times Publishing Co., Detroit, Mich. 



9^ 



Copyrighted 1917 
By David Chalmers Nimmo 



SEP 28 1917 

©C1.A476547 



r 



DEDICATION 

To 

The Great 

Spirit of Liberty 

And all her sons 

Who can always fight when there is need 

And alas, alas! 

Often when there is none, 

I dedicate these songs, 

D. C. N. 



PREFACE 

The soldier and the man 

Is each in other found. 
Old Nature and her plan 

Them both together bound. 
The best of all the world, 

Of all the hoarded mound 
Is still the rare old breed, 

The man and soldier round. 

In every living soul 

There is the soldier breed. 
As noble as the goal 

That man doth ever lead. 
In every time and place 

Where Life and Freedom plead. 
Strong, straight as nature's laws 

They leap unto the need. 

In this tremendous time 

Of warring earth and skies, 
The passion taut and prime 

All beings energize. 
All round the rounded globe 

War's lightning message flies. 
The citizens disrobe. 

The soldier doth arise. 

Next to their living selves, 

To battle passion white, 
Is something of the rage 

That tyrants dared to smite; 
Some story of a stroke 

That soldiers feed delight; 
A glory that has broke 

From man for human right. 

These pages would enshrine 

A spark that has been caught 
From Liberty's great sons 

And vict'ries they have brought. 
A spark, a touch, a gleam. 

Of passions great and taut, 
A thought, a hope, a dream, 

Life's sworded soul has sought. 



Dost thou love Liberty, 

Didst ever feel thy frame 
Burn with the glowing sense 

Of her immortal flame? 
Dost see before thee now 

Her light and lore and fame, 
And bearest on thy brow 

The glory of her name? 

If such, look at the book! 

It ought to fit the breed. 
Strike in at any page, 

Down to the bottom read. 
If thou it dost not find 

Thou foolish art to heed. 
Fling, fling it to its kind 

And leave it to its mead! 

May 1, 1917. D. C. N. 



CONTENTS 



The Grand Army of the Republic 11 

A National Song 23 

The Passion of Liberty 24 

To Uncle Sam 27 

The United States Forever 28 

To Liberty 30 

Germany 33 

The Stars and Stripes Forever, No. 1 40 

Arise and Fight 42 

Neutrality 44 

Facing It 47 

Washington 49 

Old Glory's Glory 51 

Old Glory 53 

Fourth of July Song 55 

The Curse 5S 

Stars and Stripes Forever, No. 3 72 

The Highland Pipers , 73 

Scotch War Song 75 

Lincoln 77 

Grant 79 

Peace 81 

Life's Desire 84 

An Old Fashioned Georgia Father 87 

Who Lives If England Dies 90 



The Ballad of the Rear Guard 91 

Britain ^^^ 

Brock -11^ 

The Sword of the Free 112 

Free Britain, Free Forever 114 

Atrocities ^^^ 

Dung ^-^^ 

1 22 
Dragons ^ 

The Man With the Punch • 123 

The Soldier's Style 12* 

A Song of Peace - 12^' 

The Battle of Brooklyn 129 

Belgium 1^^ 

Go, My Soldier Songs 142 



" 'Tis not in man, in demons or in Gods 
To breast the force and win against the fates; 
But when for laberty they take the odds 
Impassioned song their mem'ry celebrates. 
'Tis not vict'ry alone that sasiates 
Life's hungry heart on her immortal quest 
But virtue high that fierce annihilates 
All tyranny, and in the bosom blest 
Great Liberty eternal consecrates; 
For life in such is ever self possessed 
And even in defeat v/ith godlike virtue dressed.". 



THE GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC 

Vv clblllngLUli ±0\JO--lV±0 

In this free land the destinies late staged 
A mighty strife of humans to be free. 
The cosmic and chaotic souls engaged 
And shook the globe as tempests shake the sea. 
The soldier sworded soul of Liberty, 
With virtue, truth, intelligence and powers 
Came face to face with monstrous tyranny, 
The abortion whelped from nature's pit and hours. 
The man that is, the man that is to be. 
The past and future, all high and deep endowers 
Relocked in deadly strife that shook the eternal towers. 

This called her minions from the dark and deep 
And nature bound that ever hates the free 
Sent traitors and liberticides asweep 
With solid strength to establish tryanny. 
The consumm-ation of all hopes would be 
To found an empire on a race of slaves, 
And their inhuman inhumanity 
Defied the world and Liberty that saves. 
The blind, distempered, insane "mine" and "me" 
Called up chaotic monsters from their caves 
To hurl the cosmic souls to their eternal graves. 

That was an hour, a most tremendous hour; 
The destinies had fixed it from of old; 
Then volcanic and titanic streams of power 
Through all the sphere like mountain torrents rolled. 
Then life and man and all the state did hold 
Were dashed and dashed like waves upon the rocks. 
All elemental energies were poled 
Into the strife, and vast electric shocks 
The whole globe shook with voltage most untold. 
This sphere of hope that being feeds and frocks 
Was plowed down to the deep, bare to the granite blocks. 

Then Liberty in her divinest 
Resurrection form rose o'er tne cloudy height 
And as an angel that the sun enshrinest 
Broke through the storm with floods of life and light. 

11 



Upon her lips a golden trumpet bright 
She placed and blew such thunder shaking sound 
The globes of man were quickened with delight. 
The free born thrilled, his arms were instant found 
And soul baptized in elemental might. 
Though unlocked hell should gird him round and round 
To Liberty he sped and soul eternal bound. 

Hail, hail Oh Free! From city, field and mart 
Ye struck the straightest pathway to the camp. 
From all life's common ranks ye did depart 
And Liberty saw her own spirit's stamp. 
No promise bribed, but she thy zeal did damp 
And prophesied of strife, defeat and graves 
And all that could invite thee to decamp. 
Thy answer swift memory eternal saves: 
"For all eternity with thee we tramp; 
With thee we free the world of all its slaves; 
'Tis Liberty or death the free soul ever craves." 

Were ye the rude, uncouth, unsoldier mass 
That at the front seemed some poetic trope? 
Were ye the raw, unseasoned, swordless class 
That never once in deadly strife did cope? 
Did Peace nurse ye upon some village slope 
And veteran War sniff at ye with surprise? 
The citizens of Peace are still the hope 
When Liberty against the tyrants rise. 
Professionals feed on too deadly dope 
To serve the soul pure as the azure skies; 
The free man of the mass she doth supremely prize. 

When England's liberty and all the world's 
And all Life's hopes upon one strife were cast, 
It was the mass, the toilers and the churls 
Who filled the gap against oppressions vast. 
Professionals w^ere with the tyrant massed, 
But thy ancestors on the neck of kings 
And cavaliers did drive the iron blast 
That saved the world and hope forever sings. 
The nation's strength when the shows of war are passed 
.A.re labor's sons that through the Campus swings 
A]id their true kindred souls old Nature ever brings. 

Ye came as hosts on that portentous day. 
To Liberty ye were sustaining hope. 
Her passions glowed and dreams round ye did play, 
Till to her eyes the heav'n of heav'ns did ope 

12 



And glorious dreams pranked life's ascending slope 
With nations born, conceived in Liberty 
And nurtured on her pure celestial dope. 
In ye she saw the glorious victory 
Beyond the fields where hosts so deadly cope, 
A world of virtue founded on the free. 
The noblest dreams that Life in all her course did see. 

The ruling Fates were cruel and kind. The first 
Advantage, defiance and retreat 
Against ye fell, and fiercely free unpursed 
On your blind inexperience and heat 
The paling fires that down resistless beat. 
Life's real baptisms are always cruel and kind; 
Her victors true first drink death and defeat 
Ere they themselves and virtue highest find, 
And both ye found at that Manassas meet. 
Ye fought and fell; it was a rout most blind; 
But 'gainst the odds and hopes ye rose still mode divined. 

Then hardened, icughened, baptized deep in fire, 
Regenerated, reconsecrated true 
Unto the cause the highest heav'ns sire 
Ye came again with sacrifices new, 
Like resurrection hopes the heav'ns endew. 
The wail was turned into a paean strain; 
Great Liberty another spirit drew; 
Humanity purged off another stain; 
Old Earth and Hope drank wine that did renew, 
And burdened Life replanned a nobler reign 
That gleamed upon her sight beyond the fields of slain. 

Then round and round, ye gathered round the foe, 
On east and north and down along the west; 
'Gainst Virginia round Washington did throw 
A bulwark wall to guard her sacred breast 
When clouds and fear upon her heart did rest. 
Along the hills, Missouri and Tennessee 
Ye hemmed them in, and drove them from the crest 
In many a strife that drained the strength in thee 
To its last dram ere they were dispossessed. 
Down, down the Mississippi no more free 
Ye struggled like the flood when hampered to the sea. 

When flesh and scul to fire and sword were bound, 
When white baptisms full of death and fires 
Swept over ye the soldier real was found 
Who panting rushed with passionate desires 

13 



Unto the strife that liberty inspires. 
Across the nation great glorious sounds 
Were flung that sevenfold fed the day, and pyres 
Went flaming up the midnight heaven like hounds. 
"Fort Donaldson!" was flashed along the v/ires. 
What word is that that on the moment bounds? 
'Tis "Shiloh! Shiloh! Shiloh!" like thunder rolls its rounds 

"Antietam" now is rolling on the wind 
As some victorious soul sweeps swiftly past. 
The nation glad her soldier soul doth find, 
Her citizens the need to soldiers cast. 
Are ye now vet'rens strong? Hear then this blast, 
As some South Soul on keen December wind 
Cuts into ye with deep sarcasms vast 
And "Fredericksburg" doth hiss ye and your kind. 
But who is this that journeys swift and fast? 
A horseman shouts while flying mad and blind: 
"Vicksburg, Vicksburg has fell." It did the nation find. 

Upon the nation's bright an=d natal day 
Ye climbed up to the very peak of strife. 
As destiny divine did lead the way. 
Ye battled for the ^-^^rVl'-, di"-^nest life. 
At Gettysburg 'gainst shot and shell and knife 
And charge and charge of elemental might 
Ye held. and held like Spartans to the fife 
As twice and thrice the day dragged into night. 
The continent hung in suspenses rife; 
The thunders then that gird the throne of Right 
In elemental peals shook mountain, plain and height. 

So on ye went unto the final close; 
But why should strength its victories rehearse? 
It is the cause, the life-engirding throes 
Of Liberty that are the themes of verse, 
The glories of all glory they unpurse. 
Ye marched with Sherman down unto the sea; 
With Grant slow hammered back the mighty curse 
And laid again foundations strong and free. 
Before your strength Lee's armies did disburse; 
And Johnson saw all hope forever flee. 
And Liberty, great Queen, did weep for them and thee. 

But stay! Let not a supercilious pride 
Within ye rise against your fallen foes ! 
'Tis not the men; it is the cause they ride 
That final crowns or final overthrows. 

14 



Fate struck the South. Ye had the cause and glows 
Of nature, the momentums of her force, 
The impulse that the fuiure rich bestows, 
Dynamics ripe from Liberty's own source, 
The strength and wear the northern conscience knows; 
Did ye not have almost a world's resource? 
Can ye despise the foes that led ye such a course? 

And then ye marched that high memorial day. 
The nations gathered, all Washington was bright; 
Heroic men in all their high array 
Ye marched the march forever on our sight; 
The march of men that could forever fight 
For Liberty; the pageant transitory 
Of marching men illustrious in might 
The nation holds in deathless, deathless story; 
The march of men in honor and delight 
As ever clad the exploits old and hoary 
And singers still embalm in gladness, fame and glory. 

And now again when fifty years roll round — 
Oh what a wondrous, wondrous fifty years ! 
The mighty world a larger soul has found, 
She mounteth up the undiscovered spheres. 
And aiding Life great Science now appears. 
Her towering sons no ardors drain or parch „ 
But ride the heav'ns, earth, sea and loss and fears. 
They read and shout: "Ye Gods! Build up the arch! 
Adorn the day! Gather the cosmic peers! 
These heroes call! Sing out wind, lime and larch! 
Come, Come, ye Veterans, come! March once again your march!" 

Again ye come. Ye now form up your line. 
Your fellowships take on a joyous grace. 
A snowy glory upon your spirits shine 
As each doth find and fit his former place. 
Most noble Breed! High honorable Race! 
How truly grand ye shall march forth today '■ 
And may great Strength your infirm bolt and brace! 
There are the crowds; there the inviting way; 
All honor and applause as on ye pace 
And gratitude and fame the ages pay. 
Are ye already now to march in high array? 

"Halt! Halt!" Fling down the ranks a double "Halt!" 
Can ye not see this tall and granite line 
That comes up from the dark and shadowed vault, 
A column like immortals most divine? 

15 



Do ye not see these companies that shine, 
Now marching up before your very eyes, 
As glorious as ever fed the fine 
Heroic breeds and exploits that we prize? 
Is this a dream or pageantry of wine? 
Perhaps ye think the morning sun doth rise? 
They are your battle mates that ride the earth and skies. 

They are returned from o'er "the great divide"; 
Thy bugle call has brought them from the dead. 
Now forth they come, march with advancing stride 
With which ye all into the battle sped. 
The fifty years rolled over ye have fled. 
Ye see each old remembered youthful face; 
They are the "boys" that with the conflict wed, 
Uncles, brothers, friends, all actual in each place. 
The very ones that with thee marched and bled; 
'Tis the old days with magic, magic grace; 
Great Memory's moving pictures that o'er thy spirit pace. 

Lincoln and Grant, Sherman and McPherson 
Bring up the line on .massive steeds of might. 
All bosoms shake as tempests shake the ocean 
As these great chiefs again come on the sight. 
Tears of strong men and thunders from the height 
Fall on the earth as they come on the eyes. 
That cause and course all spirits did unite 
And chiefs and men welded in endless ties. 
Triumphant chiefs, great, noble, strong and right! 
Ye followers true on whom fame ever lies! 
All ride forever more the earth and seas and skies! 

Your wild applause greets these who now advance 
For this is Meade. Ye remember all. That day 
Forever lives on your unblinded glance; 
See Sickles, Hancock, Slocum, Howard, they 
Who held the gap and gave the stop and stay 
To that fierce charge that Pickett led so well, 
All now again across your memories stray. 
See Sheridan with magic, magic spell 
His fugitives return unto the fray 
And vict'ries ring on their funereal knell! 
Full fifty years of change has off your spirits fell. 

And many more rise up straight from the strife, 
In action clad and glorious on your eyne. 
Full of young strength and mighty tides of life, 
Just staggering with the battle's fiercest wine. 

16 



The spirit glows; the very flesh doth shine. 
These heroes with a swift immortal grace 
Ye meet and greet with gladness most divine. 
They are thy mates from that far time and place 
When ye and they fought on the fiercest line ; 
Thy mates of old rise from the battle base 
To march the final march with their immortal race. 

And now ye last survivors of an age 
Of mighty strife and exploits high and hoary. 
Defenders of the cause that did engage 
Man's oversoul and all his dreams of story, 
Remnant from the lightning hills so gory 
Where Liberty and Life did desperate stand, 
And whence today a more than sunlike glory 
Mantles and crowns that then encircling band, 
Feeble, broken, gray, bowed and scarred and scory, 
Ye never were more noble, great and grand. 
Then now ye seem to all this gathered watching land. 

March on your march, your last and farewell march! 
As now ye move in bright procession slow, 
Column and wall and flaming streaming arch 
More wait today than fifty years ago. 
The age and generation new doth throw 
Their invitations rich and "Welcome" cries 
All heaven and earth to ye. There is a glow 
Of life, and the whole nation's stretching eyes 
Are reaching up the path ye come and go. 
Beholding ye the cosmic passions rise; 
Strange, strange extremes of life doth Life herself surprise. 

Now full in sight, what thunder shout and song 
From this vast mass rise to the heavens and roll, 
As cannon great upon the mountains strong 
Full broadsides boomed in honor of Life's goal! 
Their shoutings and their passion none control 
Resemble nature's vast reverberations. 
Her elements all joining to extol 
The glorious dawn of her long expectations. 
The earth and heav'n, man and the oversoul 
Cry out in their containless exaltations 
That rolls and gathers strength with new reduplications. 

These musicians, behold and hear! The sound 
Doth mount and mount to being's highest plain. 
The past goes out; within and all around 
The golden age is rising up to reign. 

17 



upon, before and round all is a strain 
The first archangels pause and stretch to hear. 
As Liberty and Life and all her train 
Are mounting up the rich prophetic sphere. 
The march has power, right, virtue and domain 
O'er man and life and their eternal years. 
The mighty strife of war, her dead and shame and tears. 

Here is a young and unshorn generation, 
And ye white vet'rang now upon their eyes 
Are honor clad, with virtuous domination 
And held as men that life will ever prize. 
Upon their bright imaginations now arise 
Your broken forms but clad in light and fire, 
Fixed at the height of men, a faint disguise 
Of great immortals, the figures that will sire 
Dreams most divine and throne upon the skies; 
Life's archetypes, the ideals that inspire, 
Are being formed on ye as they watch and admire. 

See yonder host! They are the last survivors 
Of the slaves, centenarians with their race, 
Black only in their countenance, and hivers 
Of a gratitude that lights each shadowed face. 
Ye have come up. Ye now before them pace. 
The opening shout gives way to lamentation, 
For tears as songs great passions can uncase 
And this prevails in their glad jubilation. 
The highest language man can ever grace, 
Tears, tears and sighs and sobbed ejaculation 
Greet ye, the men who bled for their emancipation^ 

Approach ye now the Spirits of these states, 
Fifty Spirits, republican and prime; 
She towering there the fifty incarnates^ 
A cosmic Soul majestic and sublime, 
Superior to the proudest kings of time. 
That Spirit and those fifty Sisters great 
Like visitors from some celestial clime, 
Stand to their height and proudly contemplate 
Redressors of the world's most monstrous crime, 
She solemn says: "They bled to save the State. 
The great Republic lives while such upon her wait."' 

See, see the Hopes, Dreams, Visions and Ideals 
Of Life and State fill yon rich purpled bower! 
Though Peace rules there and every virtue seals 
All honor ye, for ye did re-endower 

18 



The dreams, and gave them most prophetic power 
And conquest rights upon the boundless curse. 
What commendations and each word like a flower 
Of lasting beauty they rich on ye unpurse! 
Faith, Hope and Dream and Vision from the tower 
Saw in your strife the ideals' noblest nurse; 
Free soldiers of the free these worlds forever verse. 

Thus on ye move past each admiring throng; 
Now and anon are thunders of applause, 
Rich martial strains and choruses of song. 
Our institutions, statutes, orders, laws. 
Our sanctities and reverential awes, 
And all our great, our noble, pure and wise 
Stand up and bare before the men and cause 
That saves the world when tyrants dare arise. 
True Liberty the noblest ever draws; 
All thrones established in the earth and skies 
Are stablished on such men, on pure self sacrifice. 

Hark! Hark! That was a most expansive shout. 
There Massachusetts, the freest of the free. 
Sends forth her crippled vet'rans round about 
Some rags as torn and stained as man can see. 
What elemental powers in both must be 
When gravest hosts are torn down to the deep 
And passions swell like waves upon the sea, 
Mad plunging on with a torrential sweep 
Through flesh and soul so bounding to be free! 
Last Survivors! Our strength doth often weep 
"When on the sight and heart ye and your standards leap. 

Old Glory hail! Forever more all hail! 
Wert thou not born to set a nation free? 
Did not a modern soul upon thee sail? 
Were not man's hopes rich treasured up in thee? 
Wert thou not called a destiny to be. 
The leader of the world's most glorious strife 
And only war in which a man could see 
A righteous cause calling his passion rife? 
Standard of Hope! Emblem of Liberty? 
Thou frontest straight the tyrant's razor knife 
And these have followed thee with all their powers of life. 

Thy silken folds so waving in the sun. 
The silver stars outflaming those of night, 
Thy streaming bands that on like rivers run. 
With passions rich both crimson-red and white, 

19 



Thou art a contemplation of delight, 
A virtue, glory, majesty and power 
That feeds the heart of being at her height 
With something of the Oversoul's endower! 
The splendors of the sun upon our sight 
Are not so bright as thine upon the tower, 
A vision, dream and hope of life's immortal hour! 

When on the sight ye lift your treasured flags 
So shot and shelled, cut, faded, stained and torn, 
Though they may seem as worthless worthless rags 
They far outshine the banners of the morn. 
Around each staff a glorious grace is born 
Of splendor, power, of hope and dreams of Right, 
Till Life and Time are full ashamed and shorn 
Of all their glory, magnificence and might. 
Old Glory's soul bursts forth and doth adorn 
The relics rare with flaming visions brignt 
Until the world is veiled, the sun eclipsed to sight. 

When borne among a host of vet'rans old 
Ye march along the multitudious street, 
What iron frames their mighty passions hold 
That tear the man right from his granite feet! 
What elemental earthquake actions beat 
Into the breast! What fresh volcanic fires 
Feed visions great as if they were our meat! 
Electric life far larger than the wires 
Set us aglow with incandescent heat. 
Old Glory shines! Old Giory in us sires 
The old heroic breeds and rich divine desires. 

Hark, hark. Oh hark! There is a blast of thunder 
That shakes the frame of these established skies. 
The masses pause and look in solemn wonder 
At that vast peal that through the azure flies. 
Who, who in heaven looks down with joyful eyes 
And honors thus the march that celebrates 
The victory that heav'n itself must prize? 
'Tis our immortals. This passion palpitates 
Ancestral breasts. Our mighty dead arise. 
This line and march their being so elates — 
Again the thunders burst, shake heaven and earthly states. 

Hark, hark again! There is a martial shout, 
A shout of soldiers as in triumphant fight. 
The shout of men who drive in final rout 
The tyrant force that long resists the right. 
Whose is this passion, fierceness and delight? 

20 



Who gather now and thunder thus to thee 
These salutations and songs so rich and bright? 
Thy Mother's sons crowd to the silver sea 
And rock their isle with passions glowing white 
As they behold their own Queen Liberty 
Lead now the glorious line that made the whole world free. 

Hark, hark once more! There is a mountain song 
As if some tall archangel of the morn, 
A trumpet found and now upon the throng 
The passion blew, the noblest ever born. 
Hark, hark! The piercing sound has instant shorn 
The world of all its discord, strife and greed 
And found the isoul imprisoned, blind and worn. 
The mountaineers of Switzerland now feed 
Delight and hope to all that life has torn, 
As they behold a free immortal breed 
Marching victorious march and ages golden lead. 

And who are these that now the sight o'er lord. 
Titanic chiefs of spirit, brawn and bone, 
Just eyes and front, an arm, a strength, a sword 
And atmospheres all soldiers instant own? 
Who are these few their own high spirits throne 
And almost seem gods to the generations 
As forth they stand, tall, noble and alone? 
These fronted first old tyrant dominations. 
Though unto fame unsung, unnamed, unknown. 
Life's royal sons! Your noble consummations 
Have called them from afar. They are congratulations. 

And who are these, twin cosmopolitan souls, 
Most titanic, almighty and sublime, 
Great universal natures that might pole 
All ages and all destinies of time? 

Who are these twain, scarred, torn and stained with crime 
And yet so great all men doth solemn pause 
As their weak powers unto their statures climb? 
'Tis Life and Nature clad in eternal laws; 
They come to see your marches pure and prime. 
Great Liberty the world forever draws; 
All nature, man and life, all join the sacred cause. 

March on, ye Veterans, March! Ye cannot die 
Though this vast globe shall to oblivion sink. 
True martyrs, heroes, sages, prophets high 
Can ne'er descend the night's unfathomed brink. 
Ye are immortalized and henceforth drink 

21 



The morning keen of an eternal day. 
There is no time or space to those who think; 
No night or death on martyrs e'er can stay; 
The spirit grows; the senses smaller shrink; 
In such as ye soul swallows up the clay; 
Immortal men and deeds have an eternal sway. 

As long as life grows up out of the past, 
As long as men shall struggle to arise, 
Long as desire shall hold all virtue fast, 
Hope builds her hopes on pure self-sacrifice, 
So long and longer Liberty will prize 
The noble host who gave her to her right 
And throned her to the pure and great and wise; 
And oft, Oh oft the right hand of her might 
Shall draw the veil from off Life's blinded eyes 
And ye shall march upon the unborn sight. 
The soldiers of all soldiers, her glory and delight. 

March on, march on! Forever ye shall march 
As forth ye went on that tremendous day 
When gath'ring storms filled black all heav'n's arch 
And hell's war dogs did bellow, rave and bay ! 
But not the storms and not the lightning's play 
Could damp the zeal that did your spirits flow. 
For Liberty ye dared the deadly fray, 
Liberticide, traitor and tyrant foe. 
Great Liberty shall never pass away; 
Who with her live, with her pure spirits glow, 
Down, down eternal time with her shall glorious go. 

As long as this great soldier lives in man 
And boils like fire at acts of tyranny, 
As long as his white lightning soul shall van 
The fiercest front in battles for the free. 
As long as strength with virtue like the sea 
Shall pledge themselves before the Universe 
The chattle thralls of Life and Liberty, 
So long shall ye outlive the strife and curse 
Inspiring all. Though blackest storms may be 
Ye shall burst forth from all that doth immerse, 
Your bannered lines shall march to great musicians' verse, 

March on! March on! Ye shall forever march! 
Whenever the immortal free arise 
And pass through Fame's eternal sunlike arch 
Ye and your deeds will march and all surprise. 
Unborn generations will lift their eyes 

22 



Unto the vision, and tropic thunder sound 
Of vast applause shall shake the vaulted skies. 
Man's passions and his richest globe shall bound 
To ye who gave the world her highest prize. 
The man in man by man is always found, 
Men in their highest form shall ever gird ye round. 

March on! March on! Upon imagination's dreams 
And her swift lightning and creating sight 
Ye shall arise, and thoughts like sunlike streams 
Shall Sudden start with fierceness of delight 
And see on ye life splendors flashing bright. 
Then one with you Upon your high careers, 
Reliving o'er the history of that fight 
And following through the lightning blasted years, 
Man shall be lost and find in you his might; 
And he .shall sing and crown you on the spheres, 
Sometimes in silence stand and sometimes bowed in tears. 



A NATIONAL SONG 
Tune: Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean. 
Try to sing this. 

Oh Union, the first of the nations! 

Oh States that old Freedom enring! 
As mountains are strong in their stations 

Around thee we stand and Will sing. 
Thy States be forever united! 

No star from its splendor e'er pale! 
Each sister unblighting, unblighted ! 
Hail, hail. Mighty Union, Oh hail! 
Hail, hail, Mighty Union, Oh hail! 

The states of our birth, strength and pride! 
Each state and the Union forever! 
Hail, hail through all time and all tide! 

The Pilgrims, their sons and their daughters, 

With liberty, faith, God and hope. 
Bold steered through the untraveled waters 

To build on this rock frowning slope. 
They conquered with nature's wild passion; 

An empire with virtue did sow; 
To their spirit and high kingly fashion, 

Grow, grow. Mighty Union, Oh grow! 
Grow, grow. Mighty Union, Oh grow! 

The states of our birth, strength and pride! 

23 



Each state and the Union forever! 

Grow, grow through all time and all tide! 

When the Mother became the oppressor 

And gave us the sword not the shield, 
A Washington rose the redressor, 

His name on thy forehead is sealed. 
When division again shook the nation 
And trembled each pillar and arch, 
A Lincoln restored thee to station, 

March, march, Mighty Union, Oh march! 
March, march. Mighty Union, Oh march! 

The states of our birth, strength and pride! 
Each state and the Union forever! 

March, march through all time and all tide! 

Thy brow be encircled with glory! 

Thy heart filled with faith, love and truth! 
Thy fame be embalmed in our story 

By manhood, by age and by youth! 
A Wisdom! A Power! A Defender! 

A wealth giving nations thy gain! 
A Virtue! An Honor! A Splendor! 
Reign, reign, Mighty Union, Oh reign! 
Reign, reign, Mighty Union, Oh reign! 

The states of our birth, strength and pride! 
Each state and the Union forever! 

Reign, reign, through all time and all tide! 



THE PASSION OF LIBERTY 

Great Liberty, Great Liberty, 

Thy soul in mine is flowing^ 
A crimson, crimson stream of life 

Is bursting, flaming, glowing! 
The passion purest of all life 

Is through and through me sweeping; 
The fountains of the oversoul 

With fulness now are leaping. 

Flow in. Oh Soul and overflow! 

Time's sordid life is fleeing; 
This fellowship is life divine; 

Thy soul my soul is freeing. 
Rich visions of a virtuous world 

My spirit now is seeing, 

24 



And I am mounting up the steep 
Where life and love have being. 

Before mine eyes I see the dreams 

Beneath the golden arches. 
Within my brain great kingly thoughts 

Move in majestic marches. 
My heart does like a hammer beat 

With an immortal passion. 
I feel thy spirit lift my frame 

Up to a hero's fashion. 

I'm thrilling, thrilling to the deep, 

White glowing like a fire; 
A mountain stream doth through me leap 

With fierce and swift desire 
No fear of death, no love of life 

Now through my being courses, 
But passion's tide with snorting pride 

And all her dreams and forces. 

All round the earth whatever men 

Rise up in Freedom's battle. 
Soul snorts as like a warhorse then, 

Swift joins them as a chattle. 
In every war for liberty 

I feel my spirit fighting, 
Locked in the struggle to be free, 

And Life's assassins smiting. 

I'm now upon the fiercest line 

With royal soldiers olden. 
The sword is like the lightning free, 

The odds but more embolden. 
On, on for Liberty and Life! 

Drive, drive them to their portals! 
We never were so much of men, 

So near the great immortals. 

"Oh give me liberty or death!" 

They went to battle singing. 
Responding to the war song flung 

The spirit up is springing. 
"Oh give me liberty or death!" 

Has ever been my story. 
A fighting place by Liberty 

Is all I ask of glory. 

25 



Flow in, Oh soul and overflow! 

Time's sordid life is fleeing; 
This fellowship is life divine; 

Thy soul my soul is freeing. 
Rich visions of a virtuous world 

My spirit now is seeing. 
And I am mounting up the steep 

Where life and love have being, 

I'm reading now the hook of life ; 

Slow turning o'er its pages, 
Of sense and hate and greed and strife. 

Of poets, priests and sages; 
But this has now my passion stirred 

And man is marching glorious. 
For free men from the tyrants there 

Made man again victorious. 

In mighty cities great and vast 

That rarely read the story, 
I sit me down and reap the peace 

Of free men slain and gory. 
The thoughtful times, the virtuous state 

When war is past and hoary 
I travel, stand and contemplate 

Great Freedom's grace and glory. 

A flash, a sound, a breath, a spark 

Doth set mv spirit flaming; 
A white candescent focused fire 

The very flesh is claiming. 
In her own soul of glorious life 

Great Liberty immerses. 
And I am lost and found divine 

In most immortal verses. 

Forever hence round Liberty 

Be banners, march and singing T 
All down the ages send the song 

Like thunder echoes ringing! 
"Let Liberty these mortals van 

As long as earth goes swinging 
For she is mother of the man 

To which great Hope is clinging!^'' 

Flow in. Oh soul and overflow! 

Time's sordid life is fleeing; 
This fellowship is life divine; 

2G 



Thy soul my soul is freeing. 
Hich visions of a virtuous world 

My spirit now is seeing. 
And I am mounting up the steep 

Where life and love have being. 



TO UNCLE SAM 

All hail to the man of the western sphere, 

The man that is a man indeed; 
Bring the ancient kings and the landed peer 

To measure the man we hreed. 
He has scepter, throne and an empire vast, 

Place, honor and rank and birth. 
In man that is man has old nature massed 
The gfts that outweigh the earth. 

He's the man of the ripe, round earth. 

The hope of his mother's mirth. 
The elements, passion and power. 
Enthrone him and crown with endower, 
The man of the ripe round earth. 

Both the North and South, both the East and West> 

Mount, river and pulsing plain. 
Fed the elements raw to his bulwarked breast 

And fire to his lightning brain. 
Like a granite base, like a mountain head, 

As strong as the earth's backbone; 
Tall, erect and wise and immortal fed. 
He's a man that the world can own- 

He's the man of the ripe, round earth. 

The hope of his mother's mirth. 
The elements, passion and power. 
Enthrone him and crown with endower, 
The man of the ripe, round earth. 

Prom sea to the sea, from gulf to the line, 

He travels as never a king. 
From mountain and plain, sea, city and mme, 

Hosts swift to his banners spring. 
Man is true to man, as earth to the earth, 

When man and the elements prohe, 
And the masses rise in a nobler birth 
To follow him round the globe. 

He's the man of the ripe, round earth 

The hope of his mother's mirth. 
The elements, passion and power, 

27 



Enthrone him and crown with endower, 
The man of the ripe, round earth. 

'Tis a greater world and a greater man 

On the morning's golden skies. 
Every day Life strikes out a higher plan 

And a higher state must rise. 
To the vision high from the strain and strife 

The Republic hopes in thee, 
Thou man of its birth, of its higher life, 
Faith, freedom and destiny. 

He's the man of the ripe, round earth, 

The hope of his mother's mirth. 
The elements, passion and power, 
Enthrone him and crown with endower. 
The man of the ripe, round earth. 



"THE UNITED STATES FOREVER" 

Great nations live. The splendors rise 

Along the circling aeons. 
Each loyal race allegiance cries 

And shakes the earth with paens- 
In this new sphere old nature brings 
• Her last of state creations. 
Another race allegiance sings 
And shakes the elder nations. 

My State and these United States, 

Thy praises cease shall never! 
Oft now and then I'll fling the weights 

That would unconscious sever. 
And shout for these United States, 
"The United States forever!" 

The North and South each other greet: 

"Thou art my very brother!" 
The East and West together meet: 

"A son of my old mother!" 
From shore to shore, from gulf to line. 

Are men strong as the mountains. 
Are women fair with life divine. 
And children glad as fountains. 

My State and these United States, 

Thy praises cease shall never! 
Oft now and then I'll fling the weights 
That would unconscious sever, 

28 



And shout for these United States, 
"The United States forever!" 

Here Life has struck her richest roots; 

Her boughs reach unto heaven; 
The heavy laden, ripest fruits 

Are sheltered from all levin. 
Here Liberty, the Queen of life. 
To kingly sense is bringing 
The masses from the night and strife. 
And round her ^:hey are singing: 

My State and these United States, 

Thy praises cease shall never: 
Oft now and then I'll fling the weights 

That would unconscious sever. 
And shout for these United States, 
"The United States forever!" 

The future calls, Who, who shall lead 

The world in higher courses? 
Oh Nation great, forever breed 

The peaceful man and forces! 

But when entangled in the strife. 

Belt, belt the passions tighter! 

Still make our man the lord of life 

Yet leave in him the fighter. 

My State and these United States, 

Thy praises cease shall never! 
Oft now and then I'll fling the weights 

That would unconscious sever. 
And shout for these United States, 
"The United States forever!" 

Be wise and just; be strong and free; 

Advancing, clean, victorious; 
Translating into thine from Thee 

Thy higher soul so glorious. 
Forever let great Liberty 

Lead on thy mighty marches! 
Thy future then shall brighter be 
Along these golden arches. 

My State and these United States, 

Thy praises cease shall never! 
Oft now and then I'll fling the weights 

That would unconscious sever. 
And shout for these United States, 
"The United States forever!" 



29 



TO LIBERTY 

Great Spirit of the World ! Divinest Soul ! 
Rich character for cosmic domination! 
Time's highest Hope and mankind's solar Goal 
To mount and guide and rule this recreation! 
Look on the hour! Behold our civilization! 
Intelligence, religion, art and science. 
All fruit and lore of man's long tribulation, 
All, all with which Hope dares to ,strike alliance, 
Life at her best, Faith on her lofty station 
And thou thyself are blasphemed with defiance 
And Death against all deals destruction's swift appliance. 

Two nations prime, the wisest of the earth. 
The leaders of the powers that recreate. 
Whose union firm might bring to glorious birth 
What poets dream and prophets pray for state. 
These mighty twain with monstroas murderous hate, 
Armed with invention, science, wealth and power, 
Each other seek to swift annihilate 
In their gigantic passions that devour. 
Behold the strife! It gathers woe and weight. 
Destruction rides on the abandoned hour. 
Oh what a sight for Life from her beholding tower! 

Wert thou not there Man would stand back in dread 
And pour a vast infinitudinal curse 
Acros,s the mounts of mangled mangled dead; 
But thou art there and who would dare unpurse 
A judgment on the strifes that thou dost nurse? 
Great Freedom's wars are blessings in disguise, 
Purging from life diseases vastly worse. 
Giving the world its highest hope and prize. 
For all our loss thou dost us reimburse. 
Out of the strifes a growing peace doth rise; 
Out of thy slaughtered dead new man and earth and skies. 

For thou art .still the queenliest of queens! 
True heaven born! A god begotten Soul! 
All spirits wise that travel this terrene 
Fly unto thee what time the tempests roll. 
The globe of man is sacrifice and toll 
To save thy life, for thou must ever be 
The one true hope the world alone can pole. 
Thou hast eternal conquest on the^free. 
Cheap were the loss if thou art still life's goal. 
When dark defeat and death ride over thee, 
Woe, woe unto the world! All hopes out of her flee. 

30 



But why, Oh Soul, why is this travailing strife 
With all great things thou bringest into earth? 
The very thoughts that quicken now our life 
Have cost the souls that gave their being birth. 
All vital hopes of rich transcendent worth 
Live by the price of thousands that are slain. 
Rear life's ideal upon this blasted dearth 
And more it costs than doth a battle plain. 
Lift man and inch out of his selfiish mirth 
And noble hosts must perish or be slain. 
Oh what a mighty cost for all we slowly gain! 

Must such a price, such awful price be paid 
For human rights by every generation? 
The world's wide path by noblest dead o'er laid 
As up she mounts unto her golden station! 
And must we now in this new recreation 
Pay out in blood and pure self sacrifice 
A corresponding toll on civilization? 
Oh Liberty, Life's highest hope and prize! 
Why must we pay at every exaltation 
A vaster price of strife and crime and sighs. 
Still vaster fields of blood and dead before our eyes? 

Is this the last and consummating price 
Or but a stage in an eternal strife? 
High heav'n forbid! This slaughter rank suffice 
And drive .stern truth into the heart of life! 
Oh let some sword sharp as the lightning's knife 
Pierce to the quick of human brain and heart! 
Let loss and grief and torturing anguish rife 
Shear off the fat and thinking power impart! 
Let "living thought" bring as a travailing wife 
The heav'n born, high philosophies that dart 
Out of life's golden hours, out of her sunlike chart! 

But still the vast gigantic stain and strife 
Comes up and rests upon the bulging eyes. 
Colossal crime doth paralyze all Life 
Or bows her down in vast unlanguaged sighs 
As on long lines dread slaughterings arise. 
The elements are on gigantic scales; 
The forces drive as raining lightning flies; 
Life wrings her hands; old Europe weeping cries; 
The hungry gulf for human carnage cries; 
The fathers stand; the sons destruction hails; 
Vast fields of blood and death the granite spirit quails, 

31 



Great Spirit hark and hear! Oh is it not 
In thy resource to bring an age and race 
When wars shall cease! This murdering passion hot 
Couldst thou not draw and hurl it to its place 
In deepest hell, forever in disgrace! 
Couldst thou not bring the races of the free 
Into the bonds the whole world shall embrace 
And let thy wisest, noblest spirits be 
A recreating congress that shall base 
Another age on air and land and sea 
When Life shall mount the steeps in fellowship with Thee! 

If thou wouldst call an international meet 
Would States not send their choicest spirits prime! 
Would Life not rise and them with gladness greet 
And bare most bare this vast gigantic crime 
That flings her back a hundred years in time! 
Would not break forth pleas of a clarion sound! 
Come vast appeals in languages sublime! 
Rise mighty prayers from passions most prof uond! 
And paean songs to heaven soaring climb! 
Man's highest hopes would instant upward bound 
And white electric life earth circle round and round. 

Where e'er thou art, fight on unto the end! 
Out of the strife victoriously emerge! 
Gather thy powers! Thy fallen foes befriend! 
Upon the world with unsheathed sword, Oh urge 
An international council that shall purge 
The ancient curse, a central right and power 
Establish and cast on wind and surge 
An order to disarmor every tower! 
Go thou as deep as life's eternal dirge! 
The parliament of man all nations rich endower 
And strife and death and war mankind no more devour. 

This is thy work. Thy struggle but to be 
Is almost done. Now unto thee we plead 
Out of the heart of torn humanity 
To send the peaceful, law abiding breed 
That thine own soul and noblest virtues feed! 
Send us the age and race when life shall be 
Purged more than thrice from this infernal greed, 
The parent of the deadly strife we see! 
Oh bring the times, the man and state decreed 
By Life's immortal visions of the free. 
The generations high that fellowship with thee! 

32 



Reign on, reign on, Great Liberty, still reign! 
Thou art life's richest, noblest, mo,st divine! 
What thou canst do and be and give and gain 
To human kind under thj curse malign 
No prophet dreams or poet songs can sign. 
Thy past has been a struggle but to be 
And thy rich heart of pure purpureal wine, 
As deep and full as is the boundless sea, 
Has never poured its fulness into thine. 
When comes the world and ages of the free 
Most glorious, glorious dreams will follow thine and thee. 



GERMANY 

Oh Germany! Great soul of Germany! 
Thou spirit of this cosmic climbing age! 
Thou nature that old nature brought to be 
A sceptered power, and whom the primal Sage 
Mad 3 such a soul all great souls must engage! 
Life must behold the world wide travailing globe, 
Must see the strifes all so infernal wage 
And feel the knife all thinkers pierce and probe. 
We must see thee in this gigantic rage 
That bare unto thy essence doth disrobe 
In fiercer fiercer fires than e'er was dreamed by Job. 

What passion, thought, reproaches, sigh and plea 
And images before us sudden leap 
When we behold the virtues stored in thee 
And then this strife! Oh who could silence keep 
When we behold from nature's barren sweep 
A state built up with riches rare and rife, 
Then plunge in war just when about to reap 
Full science and dominion over life! 
Who would not pause, stand silent, sigh and weep 
To see thee fling such harvest to the strife 
That every soul on earth arms with a lightning knife! 

Thou wert a joy, a hope and noble pride 
To Order, Science, Industry and Art. 
The great World-Soul upon thy state did ride 
And all potentials vast within her heart 
To thee as her dispensator did part. 
The cosmic and prophetic soul of earth 
Beheld the contributions thou didst bart 
And thought of thee with hopefulness and mirth. 

33 



Lore, books and men and deeds that were a chart 
To heaven's gates thou gavest to the dearth; 
All hierarchs of thought held thee a glorious birth. 

No wise and thinking spirit round the earth 
But thought of thee as its own kith and kind. 
The gifted soul transcends its place of birth 
And in the strangest foreigners oft find 
The fellowship that feeds and hath divined. 
And such wert thou, a living thinking soul, 
A part of that high cosmic life and mind 
That through all strong and gifted spirits roll. 
When undersouls the overspirits bind 
It is a joy to pay the priceless toll; 
All are one kith and kind who fellowship the goal- 

Unto the future thou didst promise more, 
Far more than all delivered to the past. 
These dreams, inventions, scientific lore 
Time's surface seemed to offer have been grasped 
And Life into the modern world has clasped. 
Those richer far with vast resources fraught. 
Those locked and locked in nature's secret fast. 
Those that await thinkers of cosmic thought, 
Those that create the future that is asked, 
It seemed by thee they could alone be brought. 
By that deep piercing mind that all the world has taught. 

Some modern states in power of cosmic thinking, 
In piercing, comprehensive, long protracted thought, 
Seem to decay and almost to be sinking 
In mind disease their fat has on them brought, 
Ease, pleasure, greed and all that w^ealth has wrought. 
Was it a dream or did we really see 
The modem world delivered to be taught. 
Formed and informed by that great soul in thee? 
For thou, in elemental thinkings caught, 
Couldst by thy cosmopolitan virtue be 
The world informing life, her .spirit high and free! 

Wert thou ordained to lead the modern world? 
'Tis thought, not arms, that hence must rule and reign. 
Thou hast the mind; the great thou canst engage 
With intellectual empire few attain. 
Thy hierarchal leaders held domain 
All round the globe. States hastened unto thee 
And bore away the treasures that sustain 
The generations unto life's travailing plea, 

34 



High oracles on thee were written plain 
And poet-priests saw in the age to be 
Germanic thought and life around earth like the sea» 

No equal area in all the ^lobe 
Such numbers feed, clothe, culture and sustain, 
ilear up a state that power and glory robe 
And hail the dreams that scepter and domain. 
Oh what a march of empire and a reign 
Of wise intelligence and virtuous force 
Mount on the sight and kindle heart and brain 
When we behold thy spirits on their course! 
The hopes and dreams born from earth's travailing pain 
Seem marching forth, and Life doth them endorse 
As Science mouldeth thee and thou nature's resource 

But Oh what blind and mad insanity 
Forever seems to follow gifts and grace 
And smites with curse this lost humanity 
Just in the hour triumphant honors place 
Rich splendor crowns upon her lifted face! 
Oh why should such a blasting blasting curse 
Forever smite the man and state and race 
Whenever life doth into being nurse 
The transcendental virtues that rebase 
And build the world and into it unpurse 
What makes it and themselves a cosmic climbing verse J 

Oh why should pride forever spring from power? 
And why is strength so kindred unto greed? 
Why should the gifts another hand doth shower 
Corrupt the heart till out of it proceed 
The progeny of hell's infernal breed? 
Why should the self to such proportions rise 
That "I" becomes a superhuman breed 
And transcendental ego that defies 
The ideals pure the ripe immortals lead? 
The genius great that blinds all earthly eyes 
Is mingled with the curse that hurls us from the skies. 

"Those whom the gods destroy they first make mad" 
And feed them full upon the poison pride, 
The poison pure that maketh strong and glad 
And raiseth up upon earth's thrones to ride 
Until they feel colossi that bestride 
And shake the earth. Then suddenly the light 
Of heav'n is blind and soul so god-allied 
Before the world is struck with such a blight 

35 



Mankind is blank, palsied and horrified. 
Distempered, insane, maddened, monster-sight, 
Down, down the world they go, down down the gulf of night. 

A such destroying poison was to thee. 
Thy science was less blessing than a curse. 
It fed the strength of "I" and "Mine" and "Me" 
And into thee did open and unpurse 
Ambitious dream.s that sure destructions nurse. 
Thou stoodest up among these races mortal 
And frontest full this towering universe 
As like a youth of strength and family courtal 
Who scorns the world and dares her to immerse. 
The superman stocul in the morning portal 
And felt he was alone, of all the earth immortal! 

Ambition's eyes with envy always see. 
Her hungry dreams are famished with desire. 
Her hopes are huge, her powers from morals free, 
And action is as swift and fierce as fire 
What time it bursts in its resistless ire. 
What didst thou plan? "Our future hence must be 
Upon the boundless deep. We must acquire 
The trident and be masters of the sea." 
And she that did that ancient empire sire 
And most did feed the envious heart in thee 
Must swift descend the brine and leave "the ocean free." 

So every son was taught and armed and drilled 
And fed to leap to thy world ruling schemes. 
Thy armories and magazines were filled 
For that great hour that fired thy lawless dreams. 
All science and resource that overteems 
In nature's breast and in these human wills 
Were organized unto their far extremes 
Till prophecies and dangers, threats and ills 
All Europe dreamed, and wide earthquaking seams 
Clove solid earth, explosions tore the hills 
And blood like water fiowed round earth's loundation sills. 

That navy great that with astounding rise 
Triumphantly and proudly sailed the deep 
And often cast its envy blinded eyes 
On its compeer that calm her course did keep — • 
Oh who can dream but one desire did leap 
Within thy heart as thou didst patient wait 
The promised hour to plunge her to the deep 
With that implacable, remorseless hate 



Ambitions souls to their crowned rivals keep? 
No other end thy heart could satiate 
But trample France to death and England overmate. 

Oft, often, oft in insolence of power 
Thee and thy sons did round the crowded girth. 
Ye filled as lost archangels in their dower 
The facades of great structures and in mirth 
Cast scorn upon the capitals of earth. 
Inferior states beheld and shrank with fear; 
Thy equals felt a war soul rise to birth; 
The prophets saw a lightning riven sphere 
And Life beheld a blasted ruined dearth, 
As thy ambitious sons and dreams so dear 
Would make thyself supreme around the earth and mere. 

When thus it is fate is decreed by fate. 
The tale is writ in hist'ry o'er and o'er. 
Such spirits mother forth destroying hate 
In both themselves and others^ Behind that door 
Are magazines and just a touch, no lore 
Can image forth the world destroying strife 
That plunges all in elemental war. 
There now thou art. Thy full resources rife 
Against the fate that pride has to thee bore 
Art battling now, now for that very life. 
But nature more than man wields death's destroying knife. 

Sad, sad to see the mad infatuation, 
The poison rank so fill the heart and mind! 
"Germany over all supreme in station!" 
Throngs, masses, all, drunk and infernal wined; 
Oh what a grief that such a dream should bind 
A leading state of science recreation 
And ride thy strength and drive thee undesigned 
Unto thy curse, strife, loss and mutilation! 
Oh what a grief that thou shouldst be so blind 
As drive thyself with mad infatuation 
Across the modern world to thy own ruination! 

Beyond all dreams thyself and all the world 
Is plunged in murderous, suicidal strife. 
Thou who didst first a cosmic flag unfurl 
With a resistless lightning cleaving knife 
Now op'nings blasts for choas spirits rife. 
Black monstrous forms, crimson gigantic crimes 
And savage births of some unhuman wife 
Sweep into earth and man with devil rhymes. 

37 



Thou who couldst be the leader of all life 
The blindest in these blind and bleeding times, 
Far throwing back the world to dragons in their slimed. 

For what, for what is this destruction fell! 
This wholesale slaughter of the cosmic race! 
This op'ning wide of all the gates of hell. 
Insanities inviting to uncase 
In human hearts and there their courses trace! 
Destructions full, annihilating strife. 
Ripe blasphemies and infinite disgrace 
Are now poured out upon the soul of Life 
And cripple her, disform her and debase; 
Thee and thy states, pierced by the lightning knife, 
Seemed sold as to a curse, to curses over-rife. 

There is a cry out of the heart of nature; 
On mountain heights and down along the sea. 
Trees, winds and waves, and tongues of every creature 
Are moaning out the dirges that must be 
When hopes are dashed as strife how dasheth thee. 
Oh what a wail and moan of lamer^tation 
Are in these storms that o'er the splendors flee 
When this high hope and promise to creation. 
Of state and life for which all ages plea. 
Doth dash herself with blind infatuation 
On these ambitious schemes to crown an outward station! 

Thought sees a scene of noble congregations, 
Of thinkers, artists, musicians and the wise, 
Great socialists, prophets and seers and stations. 
Faint .shadows of the powers upon the skies 
And all bowed down in elemental sighs. 
The offspring of the true and Oversoul 
Can no more see; their solar searching eyeS 
Are blinded by the sorows that control; 
Now faith is dead; a palsy on them lies; 
They scarce can dream a far millennial goal; 
The old eternal strife seems all that earth doth pole. 

The world of dreams is passed into eclipse. 
On heaven's thrones a darkness has domain. 
But there behold! A rending lightning clips 
The curtains black and now a sight and strain 
Burst from on high into the strife profane. 
Faiths, Hopes and Dreams and Visions of delight 
To see these blind destructions so insane 
Are trembling, pale, aghast and dumb and white. 

38 



All sing in loud, high languaged passion pain: 
"The world of hope, the world of truth and right, 
Has lost her solar path and plunging down the night." 

But Germany, thou art too great to perish! 
This mighty strife will purify and purge. 
The remnant left time will maternal cherish 
And out of death a higher life emerge. 
A little while and the eternal surge 
Shall cover all and nature kind will nurse 
New songs of hope out of this swelling dirge. 
A Germany free from the blasting curse, 
Shall then arise and the eternal urge 
Shall feed thy sons and virtues free unpurse 
That shall mount up the globe and generations verse. 

Thou art too great, thou art too great to perish; 
The world in thee beholds another soul. 
For their own life all states must henceforth cherish 
Great reason and the socialistic soul 
Thou gavest them. The very strifes that roll 
All empires now in blood and death and fears 
Lift thee and them into a nobler goal. 
Self-sacrifice, repentance, anguish, tears 
Are but a tax and civilization's toll. 
Another soul out of these travailing years 
In thee and them shall rise and mount diviner spheres. 

Genius of virtue, science, art and power. 
Spirits that feed and recreate the earth. 
Ye must transcend the nation as the hour, 
Must come unto a cosmopolitan birth 
That knows no state but all within the girth! 
Interest and strife and time bring nations near; 
Bounds must dissolve before progress or dearth 
And states expand unto the visions clear 
And they shall rule who bring the largest worth. 
Brute force must pass. Ripe reason rule the sphere. 
There are no bound'ries hence to all that Life holds dear. 

Genius of virtue, science, art and power. 
Eternity must henceforth be thy base; 
Infinity must blossom in the hour 
As wisdom shines in each celestial face. 
Henceforth there must be cosmopolitan grace 
In all ye think or dream or can create. 
The essential life of all the human race 

39 



Is growing one and must thee dominate. 
Thy genius now the whole world must embrace 
All nations now the new creators wait. 
The cosmopolitans hence are rulers as by Fate. 



THE STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER 

No. 1 

The Stars and Stripes Forever! 

Fling her out unto the height! 
Let her stream unto the heavens 
Till she burns upon the sight ! 
Soul if civic life and virtue! 

Let the people see and shout! 
Shake the nation with the cheering 
As we fling Old Glory out! 

The Stars and Stripes Forever! 

Spirit pause and really see! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever! 

There's a magic power and plea. 
The Stars and Stripes Forever, 
There's a vision now to thee. 
The Stars and Stripes Forever! 
Is the glory of the free. 

The Stars and Stripes Forever, 
'Tis the banner of the right; 
There's a virtue in her bosom 

That to free men feeds delight. 
There's a vision and a glory 

Ever bursting on our sight, 
A splendor, march and chorus 
As the morning up the height. 
The Stars and Stripes Forever, 

When we come unto the years! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever, 

When we enter life's careers! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever, 

When our eyes are purged by tears! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever 
When we triumph on the spheres. 

The Stars and Stripes Forever, 

As a higher hope to time, 
A prophecy of ages high 

And all virtue pure and prime! 

40 



With the world she has heen growing 

And inspiring all to climb, 
Let her mount and crown the station 
Like a hope of life sublime! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever 
As the constellations bright! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever 

As the morning on the night! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever 

As the splendor on the height! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever, 
Oh forever on our sight! 

The Stars and Stripes Forever 
There's a prophecy and hope. 
See! A broad inviting pathway 

Up the future's noble slope. 
Up, up the new created world 

Now a Virtue lifteth high, 
Swings the banner of the nation 
As a glory on the sky. 

The Stars and Stripes Forever 

On the present dark and dun! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever 
On the splendor of the sun! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever, 
She has always always won! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever 
While all time and tide shall run! 

The Stars and Stripes Forever! 

Hear that glorious, glorious sound! 
The singing now is shaking earth, 

The citizen is found. 
The Stars and Stripes Forever 

Now are going down the years. 
Old Glory and young Liberty 
Are mounting up the spheres. 
The Stars and Stripes Forever, 

Oh forever just and right! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever 

Our defense and hope and might! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever 

Glory, passion and delight! 

The Stars and Stripes Forever, 

Oh forever on the height! 



41 



ARISE AND FIGHT 

Awake! Awake! Awake! 
*Tis a trumpet sound to the nation's need 

That doth on us break 
As a voice that calls from the hearts that bleed. 
'Tis Liberty, our divinegt soul, 
Time's supremest hope and man's rolar goal 
That upon the hour doth her heart unroLL 

Awake I Awake ! Awake ! 
The Queen of the isles in her passion white 

Doth upon us shake 
An appeal to life and the sons if might. 
'Tis the living soul with a piercing sound; 
Be the tissues time has upon us bound 
From the heart and eyes with a wrench unwound! 

"Arise! Arise! Arise! 
Now ye free born race, let a lightning sword 

Sweep the earth and skies 
Of the mine and mart and the gains adored. 
Let the soul in soul hear the clarion sound! 
As ye heard before, from the sordid ground 
Now leap into life with a mighty bound," 

"Arise! Arise! Arise! 
Let the greatest man in ye ever born 

Come before my eyes 
In the naked strength ye have ever worn. 
See! The heav'ns and earth are in gathering storm; 
Let the thunder, lightning and fears that swarm 
But thy girdle bind and thy passions warm!" 

"Behold ! Behold ! Behold ! 
All the dogs of war that have bellowed long 

And been fed most bold 
Have broken the leash in their hungers strong. 
They are leaping forth; they are tongued for thee; 
They are only held by the circling sea; 
Ye, the first born free, shall they feast on ye?" 

"Behold! Behold! Behold! 
See the war lords' dreams. On the world they ride 

And their brute strength rolled 
On your island Queen who is Life's best bride. 
'Tis my own pure soul or a tyrant's rule, 
'Tis a free man's throne or a slave's foot stool. 
That this unyoked race shall the future school,"' 

42 



"To arms! To arms! To arms! 
I can see the flash of the passions white 

That scorns the alarms 
In a rising shout of supreme delight- 
Ye are still the race of my fondest dreams, 
Sons, daughters and sires in whose being streams 
My spirit of life and my hopes and schemes." 

"To arms! To arms! To arms! 
'Tis a mighty strife. It was tax all force 

And will break all charms 
But the world's free soul and her va.5t iv.souvce. 
See! Peace looks around. There's no other hope. 
None but ye dare mount up the armored slope; 
None but ye safe stand on the summit's cope." 

"March on! March on! March on! 
Now the die is cast; now the strife begun, 

And the free man's life 
Must again be shed and in torrents run. 
But cheap is the loss to the glorious prize 
For the race dies out when the free man dies 
And the world is lost when the tyrants rise." 

"March on! March on! March on! 
Ye are on the field. Ye are in the fight 

And the old world shakes 
With the mighty strife of the elements white- 
Now, Life stands aghast at the fearful sports 
As destructions rain from artillery forts 
And staggering Death holds varnival courts." 

"Fight on! Fight on! Fight on! 
To the finish go! 'Tis a final war. 

It is life or death 
For the free or slave and the world so sore. 
Ye are driven back. Ye are driving forth. 
Drive on, drive on through the night so swarth 
Like the girded strength of the granite north/* 

"Fight on! Fight on! Fight on! 
From my soul I bleed but I cannot shrink 

From the awful course 
To a still more worse when I pause and think. 
For defense of self bind thy passion tight! 
For the future age be thy elements white! 
But for Liberty, to the last ditch fight!" 



43 



NEUTRALITY 

'Tis a pregnant time. Earth is in travailing pain. 
Great agonies and dread convulsions rife 
Tear through the frame with vast gigantic strain. 
The long proclaimed, dark destined hour of strife 
Has settled down upon the soul of Life. 
A hemisphere, the nations, bond and free 
Make insurrection. State, man and child and wife 
Are ruthless slain by hosts that spurn all plea 
And War insane wields her insanest knife. 
Behold that scene! Here proclamations be: 
"These citizens and states shall just sit still and see." 

At such a time, fate burdened burdened time. 
When Britain in a final struggle locks 
With a machine gigantic and sublime. 
Dynamical and founded on the rocks. 
At such a time when none but she dare blocks 
The progress of war's latest incarnation 
That rages on and cataclysmic shocks 
Sends through mankind and threatens civilization. 
At such a time when War her strength unlocks 
In number, science, wealth, and fierce elation 
As shakes the mighty globe as never since creation, 

At such a time when Britain comes once more 
To bear the brunt and battles of the free. 
To give herself as in the days of yore, 
A sacrifice that Europe yet may be 
The heritage all free men dream to see. 
At such a time when mankind's highest plan 
She bears aloft and strikes with Liberty, 
With that high Soul that all the ages van. 
Another oath to all eternity. 

And blows a blast that through the earth has ran 
That calls to deadly strife her every free born clan. 

Is this the time that these United States 
Should sit and gloat and gloat and gloat upon the mart. 
Engaging in these endless keen debates 
Of empires new that open up for bart 
And feed but death unto her selfish heart? 
Is this the time that these United States 
Should give all life and strength unto the art 
Of wealth, and hail as most propitious fates 
The awful wars that swing such gates apart? 
Yet here she sits and calmly contemplates, 
Not, not the glorious cause, the mart that for her waits. 

44 



Is this the time that these United States 
That free men first brought to a glorious birth, 
And gave her young with joys and loves and hates 
Unto a course that feeds with strength and mirth 
All hope and faith that fills the rounded earth? 
I,s this the time that these United States 
That late consigned with deadly strife and dearth 
Liberticides and tyrants to their fates, 
To sit and see great Freedom's globe of worth 
Convulsed and torn, and turn their long debates 
Not, not on Liberty but on the wealth that waits? 

Why should this neutral edict smother down 
The heaven-kindled, sacred altar fire. 
The flame divine that doth with glory crown 
All souls that feel and feed the high desire? 
Why should this proclamation so require 
This silence, until deaf and dumb and blind 
This Republic that Hope did sight and sire 
Seems to be dead to its own higher kind? 
Why should one side fling out their frenzied ire 
And our own kin must on her armor bind, 
Save mankind's highest hopes and her high course maligned? 

To hell, to hell, a thousand times to hell 
W^ith neutral laws that muzzle up the free, 
All selfish fear, all philanthropic spell 
And coward peace that Liberty woud see 
Forever tramped before the strifes that be! 
To hell, to hell, a thousand times to hell 
Hurl every masquerading prayer and plea 
Disloyal unto Liberty and fell 
To all mankind with cursed tyranny! 
Life'.s highest hopes are now in shot and shell; 
The common dung like souls in sordid courses dwell. 

Oh let us hear some libertarian plea 
Of white, contagious, elemental fire! 
Let passion songs and flaming measures free 
The silence fill that neutral laws require! 
Oh pour the ,sound with infinite inspire 
Upon the greed and gold besotten soul 
Until they feel the all consuming ire 
And Liberty see as our human goal! 
Pour out the strain! Oh lift it high and higher! 
O'er land and sea the ancient numbers roll! 
'Tis Liberty alone that can the planet pole- 

45 



Far more than wealth or home or child or wife 
A man should side and line up with the free. 
There's something lost, the essence of all life, 
If freedom's wars that gem man's history 
Have never found the mightier soul is thee. 
Thou art not man, a dung begotten thing, 
Mere scab on life, disease on land and sea, 
Pollution to the ages that we sing 
If to this strife thou unresponsive be, 
If passion white does not within thee spring, 
If thou leave Liberty unto the marts to cling. 

'Tis wisdom wise that we should neutral be; 
But should we not pour out with thunder sound, 
That at the base and if the need we see 
Forever more this nation will be found 
With Liberty to gird her round and round? 
Who fights for her all such we underbase; 
The streams of life that flow far underground 
Will strengthen them with sympathies that lace 
The passions tight in ever forward bound; 
And if the free cannot maintain their place. 
Shot like a thunderbolt this nation forth will race. 

'Tis only they who fellowship the strife 
Dare share the fame of the immortal dead. 
A full s.elf-sacrifical glow in life 
Is just the same as that in battle shed. 
One glory bright eternal crowns each head. 
Where e'er man's lot, whatever he may be, 
Against all odds, with all unto him wed, 
With hope and faith, self sacrifice and plea, 
Unmindful of the portion to him fed. 
Scorning the neutral courses soul should flee. 
With Liberty line up and fellowship the free! 

Awake, awake! Ye free born breed arise! 
Neutral without, but inward ever be 
Life',s free free born that still can sacrifice 
And share the strifes deep calling unto thee! 
Stand up! Stand up! Be wise but be more free! 
Freedom alone life's larger doors can ope! 
What now we are, whatever great we see. 
Is but the fruit of Freedom's deadly cope. 
Feed thou the flame! Pledge life to Liberty! 
Line with the cause! Stand up on plain and slope! 
Fight, fight for Liberty and give the future hope! 

46 



FACING IT 
A Trench Song. 

Both life and death are here; 

Both hang as by a hair; 
Each moment Death can shear 

From life so full and fair; 
But honor still we prize 

And honor death defies. 
Far better here than there 

Though hard the lot we bear, 
For here in duty's place 

We can stand up erect 

And Life and Death both face. 



Within the mind and heart 

Are thoughts and passions white. 

From these Immortals start 
And front us in their might. 

What coward-hosts must shrink 
When they but stop to think, 

For from their souls arise 
Condemning lightning eyes? 

We have purged off disgrace 
And here can stand erect 
And our own spirits face. 

The Germans are a breed, 

Strong, fierce, remorseless, wise; 

They would the planet lead. 
By trampling freedom rise; 

Their guns with science lore 
Fierce as the lightnings pour; 

Only the free may dare 
Such elements so bare, 

But we are Britain's race 
And still can stand erect 
And front them to the face. 



There is the soldier breed, 

Great memory holds them dear; 

To every high born creed 
They are forever near. 

Who fronts them unafraid 
is of their metal made, 

47 



Who shrink and cringe and fly 
Disgrace doth on him lie. 

Time's every soldier race, 
We can stand up erect 
And look them in the face. 

Great Britain's empire soul, 

Majest-c and sublime. 
The best we see to pole 

The world and life and time, 
Sq.- scans the vast round globe, 

Doth all souls pierce and probe. 
Shall humans yet be free? 

Who answers to her plea? 
Behold her eyes and grace! 

We can stand up erect 

And look her in -the face. 

Upon those solemn skies 

Are solemn judgment thrones. 

All thoughtful, strong and wise 
God's final judgment owns. 

We are no court of saints ; 
Sense and temptation taints; 

Great passions drive us strong; 
We feel the stain of wrong; 

But dying for the race 
We can stand up ereci 
And look God in the face, 

'Tis a tremendous time. 

All elements are bare. 
The strong are in their prime. 

The weak are in despair. 
The world, nations and man 

The lightnings test and scan^ 
Our duty is to fight 

For Liberty and Right. 
Since we can fill the place 

We can stand up erect 

And all the cosmos face. 



4g 



WASHINGTON 

1732-1797 

High honored and immortal spirit pure! 
We love tO; stand and contemplate thy soul; 
For such a man the furnaces endure 
And such a dream a nation great can pole 
What stormy times or evolutions roll. 
Wert thou not one the mighty mother lent 
When resurrected freedom shook the whole 
Created frame and democracy was sent 
Into the world? To wrest Life's high control 
From tyranny thou wert chosen, formed and bent 
And led the fierce rebellions old ancient empires rent. 

Thou wert a man. Old Nature stamped thee great 
And wrote it on thy course and countenance. 
Life needed men. There was the galling weight 
Of tyrants, a continent hung in suspense. 
And generations were slaves or freemen hence. 
No wonder Liberty took hold on thee 
And armed thee strong for her young hope's defense. 
Before the world, the sword they made thy plea. 
Small was the sphere, the issues most immense. 
The struggle won, and thou must ever be 
An ideal patriot and freeman of the free. 

Thou hast outsoared the limits of thy kind. 
Thrice purged above the blemishes of crime 
Thou art enthroned, replenished and divined 
With virtues and immortal passions prinie. 
Exalted where we mortals cannot climb. 
There is a mythologic largeness vast 
Upon thy spirit, and atmospheres sublime 
That lifteth soul from the repressive past. 
We cannot dream thee back in struggling time 
And with our great thou canst no more be classed. 
The high immortal peers are through thy spirit glassed. 

To just a few is given the glorious right, 
To be revered, lifted and throned divine. 
Purged and renewed of every mortal blight 
And clothed with grace that like the sun doth shine; 
To just a few, time, place and virtue line 
That nations choose and throne as their ideal. 
And Life delights to fill them as a shrine 
And heaven stamps on them her highest seal; 

49 



To just a few the Fates are so benign 
As gods they rise, the best of life reveal 
And still grow more divine as on the ages wheel. 

And such wert thou. The nation at her birth 
With that instinct that never knows untruth 
Chose thee the type of all she dreamed of worth 
Or she could wish to guide her growing youth. 
Though she w^as young, strong, native and uncouth. 
And we have marched to undreamed civilizations. 
Been torn by strife and taught by bitter ruth 
Thou still doth guide the Union's aspirations. 
The world outgrows all but eternal truth. 
Our dreams, inventions, powers and wealth and stations 
Stand still and think and bow to thy soul's dominations. 

In other days the heroes of mankind 
Were throned and pictured on the midnight skies. 
That thus exploit and character might bind 
The generations unto a larger prize. 
As their ideal was sketched before the eyes 
On such gigantic scales as did command 
The larger soul within them to arise. 
So thou are spread on this Republic grand, 
A great ideal no mortal dare despise 
For widening hosts by thee are taught to stand, 
Feel fire within the heart and strength in each right hand. 

We see thee walking up and down the nation. 
The great presiding genius of all life. 
Moulding the form of each new generation. 
Still moulding men out of destroying strife. 
Great national type with elements as rife 
As is our growth to cosmopolitan scope. 
Oft time is cut as by a lightning knife 
And face to face we meet thee up the slope. 
Life's passions rise as to the soldier's fife; 
New girded, armed and kindled with new hope 
Thy spirit in us burns to meet the foes that cope. 

Above and throned upon this mighty nation, 
That grew from it and feeds it life's inspire. 
There is a gath'ring, glorious congregation. 
Immortals that this mortal sphere doth sire. 
All Genius, Valor, Honor and Strength and Fire 
Are gathered there and feed the lofty mind, 
The music, dreams and memories of desire. 
Thou standest there amid thy kindred-kind, 

50 



-As thou stoodst here amid the strife and ire, 
A spirit tall whose character doth bind 
The souls of largest men these growing states can find. 

And yet we build our towering monuments 
Marble and bronze unto the azure skies, 
Till they become formality and offense 
Unto the soul and blindness to the eyes> 
But let it pass. Spirit to Spirit cries; 
Thou art enthroned within the civic heart; 
Thy image on imagination flies 
Till sense and strife and selfishness depart 
And soul within doth unto thee arise. 
Life sees the lines of her prophetic chart 
In splendor bursting forth and blinding sense and mart. 



OLD GLORY'S ULORY 

Old Glory high, forever wave! 

Spread, s_pread her dominations! 
Inspire with life the powers that save 

And bring the new creations! 
O'er Peace, a summer queen that reigns. 

She is the best defender! 
Vast peaceful trains with joyful strains 
Bid ever more attend her! 

Oh lift her up and fling her out! 

She is the hope of ages! 
Time's endless wars are on the rout, 

The future peace engages. 
Cease, cease old war as life's great end! 

Swing out another story! 
To float o'er Peace, bid her increase^ 
Is most Old Glory's glory. 

But if disgrace or tyrants rise. 

Throw her to heaven arching! 
This banner like a trumpet cries: 
"Arise for wal-ward marching!'^ 
From city, fol*cst, mart and mine. 

From mountain, plain and oceail 
Thy sons and sires with frenzy fine 
Come rushing with devotion. 
Oh lift her up and fling her out! 

Defenders will assemble! 
They come with loud triumphant Shout, 

51 



oppressors fear and tremble. 
Look up on high! Behold and scan 

Our hope, defense and story! 
To call the soldier up in man 

Is most Old Glory's glory. 

Upon the fiercest fighting front' 

Are clashing earthquake passions. 
See! Men rush to to bear the brunt 

With hero fire and fashions. 
Far to the fore, the very first 

Old Glory on is leading; 
The hour is in her soul immersed. 
Her life she all is feeding. 

Oh lift her up and swing her out! 

The tempest she can battle. 
She scorns disgrace and dares to bout 

The tyrant, thrall and chattle. 
"Oh give me death or liberty!" 

Has ever been her story! 
To fight the tyrants for the free 
Is most Old Glory's glory. 

And when the fighters home are come 

All scarred and worn and cripple. 
Some shout aloud, some stand as dumb, 

Down some the tears will ripple. 
For their Old Glory lifted high. 

Shot, sholled and stained and tattered, 
More than the sun adorns the sky 
Thoug'h like the soldiers shattered. 
Oh lift her up and fling her out! 

She is the freeman's banner 
The round earth join us in our shout. 

High heaven loves to fan her. 
Around her ring! Her praise sing! 

Embalm her fame in story! 
The stains and scars that round her cling 
Is most Old Glory's glory. 

Old Glory high, forever wave! 

Spread, spread her dominations! 
Inspire with life the powers that save 

And bring the new creations? 
O'er Peace, a summer queen that reigns 

She is the best defender! 
Vast peaceful trains with joyful strains 

Bid ever more attend her! 

52 



Oh lift her up and lling her outl 

She is the hope of ages! 
Time's endless wars are on the rout, 

The future peace engages. 
Cease, cease old war as life's great end! 

Swing out another story! 
To float o'er Peace, bid her increase. 

Is most Old Glory's glory. 



OLD GLORY 

Behold! Behold! The fathers there 

Shake out another banner 
The elder nations start and stare 
And scorn and cursing scan her. 
But Liberty, the chosen Queen 

Of this new world did plan her. 
And new word Spirits swift and keen 
With vital breath did fan her. 
Old Glory is a living thing; 
The life of life is flowing 
Within the bosom that we fling 

Unto the winds so blowing- 
The Mother, sons and daughters sing 
And march with crimson glowing. 

Up, up the infant's rugged years 

This banner led the nation; 
Wise moulding these chaotic spheres 

Unto a new creation. 
Vast, vast resources east and west, 

New peoples, times and stations, 
Old Glory led us far abreast 
And marched for dominations. 
Old Glory is a living thing, 

A soul contagious fire. 
Upon the skies with eagle wing. 

Inspiring son and sire. 
The ages marching as they sing 
Unto a nobler lyre 

Who up the evolution climbs 
With man and nature clashes. 

This young Republic faced the times 
And dared the sword that flashes. 



Thoii, thou the foremost in the fray 

Wert torn with mighty gashes; 
But shot nor shell nor sword could stay 
Thy fierce and forward dashes. 
Old Glory is a living thing; 

Peace, peace her breast engages; 
But if the tyrants on us spring 

The ancient spirit rages 
And just a call from her would bring 
The soldier of the ages. 

Ail round the vast and girdled globe 

Old Glory is a glory. 
All thrones and empires she could robe 

And lend them strain and story. 
No majesties and grandeurs prime 

Or splendors high and hoary 
To Liberty seems more sublime 
Than this Republic's glory. 
Old Glory is a living thing; 

Life in her breast is flowing; 
"Who can her rhyme mounts to his prime 

With crimson joy and glowing. 
Oh let her swing! Her praises sing! 
The world grows with her growing. 

By City, forest, Stream and mead, 

-On mountain, plain and ocean, 
To tower and mast, Oh nail her fast 

And stir the winds in motion! 
All citizen and soldier lines 

With music of devotion 
Shall lift her up and pledge the wines 
Of life's divinest potion. 

Old Glory ig a living thing; 

Old Earth her life is feeding; 
The World-Soul shakes her with a fling: 

"Old Glory go on breeding! 
Who with thy soul can mount and sing,, 
For these the world is pleading." 



FOURTH OF JULY SONG 

"Awake!" a spirit cried: "Awake! 

Oh poet, slumber fling! 
The civic harp in silence break 

And from her spirt bring 
A song with passion pure and white, 

A lyric that shall ring 
To feed the nation wise delight. 

Inspiring all to sing!" 

"Arise, Oh Arise! 'Tis the Fourth of July! 
A glorious dawn is on earth and the sky. 
The morning inviteth and trumpeters sound 
The bugling blast that is echoing round." 

"Today is the day when the nation was born. 
Let life and her sons with a gladness be torn! 
Republican State! True Democracy great! 
With liberty, life and all passions elate. 
We rise and we march and thy altars we ring. 
Allegiance and honor and praises we sing!" 

"Trump, trump it out! 'Tis the Fourth of July, 
The day of the year to be sacred and high; 
To pause and to think and to see and to feel 
The nation, its life and its hopes and ideal." 

"Trump, trump it out! Sea, mountain and skies 
The echoes are flinging, the nation doth rise. 
In the hemisphere young is a passion and pulse, 
A marching and music and dreams that convulse." 

"Trump, trump it again to the ends of the earth. 
Giving selfishness death and the citizen birth! 
Bring, bring them all up to the top of the state 
And feed them the soul of the nation so great!" 

"Today is the day when the nation was born. 
Let Life and her sons with a gladness be torn! 
Republican State! True Democracy great! 
With Liberty, life and all passion elate, 
We rise and we march and thy altars we ring. 
Allegiance and honor and praises we sing." 

"Spread, spread out the struggle, the struggle to be 
The chainless, the brandless, the fearless and free; 
Life's royal and straight, law's loyal and strong, 
Still singing the world her immortalest song." 

55 



"The fathers who fathered and founded the state,. 
The mothers who mothered and nourished it great, 
Behold them, behold! In colonial guise 
They're marching right into the morning's bright eyes- 

"The sons and the daughters of earlier years 
With brawniest strength defied nature and fears. 
The chopper and plowman and builder abreast 
Are marching before us with passions of zest." 

"Look, look! Who are these! The immortals most great 
Have descended to earth for our honors of state. 
'Tis Washington, Franklin, tall Lincoln and Grant 
And all the immortals we honor and chant." 

"Look, look! Who are these? There are Fifty and One, 
The angels of morn round a Soul like the sun. 
All the Sisterhood full and the Queen of the throng 
In majesty, splendor and marching and song." 

"Look, look! What is this? It is Liberty's train, 
Truth, honor and right and the powers that domain. 
Intelligence, virtue, religion and law 
And all the great worlds that forever they draw." 

"Look, look! Who is this? 'Tis the vision divine. 
So eclipsing the sun and so bulging our eyne! 
It is Liberty, Queen of the earth and the sky 
Now marching and sealing 'The Fourth of July.' " 

"Today is the day when the nation was born. 
Let Life and her sons with a gladness be torn! 
Republican State! True Democracy great! 
With Liberty, life and all passions elate. 
We rise and we march and thy altars we ring. 
Allegiance and honor and praises we sing." 

"Remember the time and remember the deed 

That created the state and hemisphere freed! 

They were nature's own stuff and all kings in their power 

Went down before men with a royaler dower." 

"Remember the day and remember the right 
It gives to the soul like the morning to night! 
And in thee the spirit of freedom arise, 
Looking forth on the state with the wisest of eyes!" 

56 



"Remember the gift and remember the price 
The ages have paid for a free paradise! 
How rivers of blood and vast millions of free 
Have been bled for the state and is native to thee!" 

"Remember the honor and glory and grace 
On Liberty's brow and around her free race! 
The finest of bread and the wine that we drink 

Are thoughts of the free the free only can think." 

" 'Tis the Fourth of July! 'Tis the Fourth of July! 
The cannon are sounding to earth, sea and sky; 
The spirits and passions and powers of the free 
Have risen like waves on the wind sweeping sea," 

"Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam is now riding in pride 
Or standing and viewing the nation so wide. 
He is tall and erect, cheerful, chesty and strong 
And smiles as he hears the full national song." 

"See yonder the Eagle is soaring in might, 
In majesty robed and resplendent with light; 
Both giving and taking the fervors of fire, 
Surveying all state with the fondest desire!" 

"Old Glory, Old Glory the multitudes lead; 
The man within man is now found and full freed, 
She fronteth the future with passion and power, 
A hope to the state like the sun on his tower' 

"North, East, South and West with musicians now march, 
With playing and~ singing shake pillar and arch; 
The soul is new born, the true citizen found, 
The Fourth of July to the state has him bound." 

"Today is the day when the nation was born. . 
Let Life and her sons with a gladness be torn! 
Republican State ! True Democracy great ! 
With liberty, life and all passions elate, 
We rise and we march and thy altars we ring, 
Allegiance and honor and praises we sing." 



57 



THE CURSE 

What time I traveled on the world's highway 
With passion white and most exalted thought, 
Beholding ages and civilizations stray 
Before mine eyes, my spirit fierce was caught 
And held by power and infinitely wrought; 
For there below, in their most perfect form, 
With all their wealth, the greatest nations brought, 
The evolutions of highest cosmic norm, 
The civilization that all the ages sought. 
Were plunged in strife, and all the powers of storm 
Swept down on lightning wings to feed the passions warm. 

When at the scene in sorrow and amaze. 
With bulging eyes and shadowed by dark fear 
I strained and strained to watch the deadly plays 
My soul was shook as tempests shake the meer. 
But when at length my spirit I could steer 
I saw it like an infinite insanity 
Bestride the world and driving on the sphere; 
And when again the stark, blind, mad profanity 
Its heart revealed to reason calm and clear, 
A vision rose; the Spirit of humanity 
Came up upon the scene to view the deadly vanity. 

Then sudden, that Spirit of humanity 
With passion of an infinitest height 
Rose to her full, full, full divinest sanity 
That exercised all corresponding right. 
A voice of clear, omnipotential might. 
More keen and quick than lightnings ever woke 
Prilled heav'n and earth, and held all in despite 
Of all the hells that in and round them broke. 
Amazed and still and list'ning in their fright, 
Time's primest Soul to all earth passions spoke 
And on the mui-d'ring strife did curse immense invoke, 

"Oh World and Life and Time! Contending Nations, 
And all ye neutral yet unneutral States! 
All Hierarchs of vain and worthy stations! 
All Masses wide that bear life's mountain weights 
And Nature great that all so dominates! 
Oh hark and hear! Cease, cease infernal strife! 
The soul in soul lost in its selfish hates 
Mount up again unto the throne of life! 
Hark ye and hear as Reason now relates 
The curse of truth, sharp as a Roman's knife 
And drives it to the hilt with all her passions rife." 

58 



*'Look on yourselves! Your beings contemplate! 
Your natures now fix 'neath a microscope! 
Let living soul in reason's best estate 
With something of the golden dreams of hope 
Her lightning eyes on your own spirits ope! 
Stand up in what ye most essential are! 
Purge out, purge out all adventitious dope 
And your own souls to your own sight unbar! 
Abhor the lie ! No longer blindly grope ! 
When man with truth can weigh and pass at par " 
He's young and fresh and strong as is the morning star." 

"Are ye not men or is this glorious form 
A masquerade, disguise and blind attire 
Upon the things that from the jungle swarm 
And clothe themselves as social codes require. 
Thus mocking dreams the heavens rich inspire? 
Are ye not men or is this godlike frame 
The habitation, instrument and power 
Of" some dehumanized and beastly flame 
Forever fierce with passions that devour? 
Are ye not men? Is this erected tower 
A heaven selected soul or monster of the hour?" 

"Are ye not minds? Have ye not power to think? 
Did ye not share life's transcendental gift? 
Is not this power thy glory, meat and drink 
And do great thoughts your spirits never lift? 
Does mental light the darkness never rift 
And bear thee through into the living dreams 
The thinkers shape is this chaotic shift? 
Does Reason and her high prophetic schemes 
Not work in ye and does this change and drift 
The cosmos blind? Upon you thinking gleams, 
Such grace cannot deceive. Thought in your being teems. 

"Then stand and pause and contemplate this scene! 
Here is old Europe and all her tangled races; 
See how black storms the azure heavens screen. 
How earthquake throes the granite base displaces. 
How passion of volcanic hate uncases, 
How all the thrones, masses and states and powers, 
How laws, religions, literatures and graces. 
How humans great and all their cosmic dowers, 
How all between the thrones and mountain bases 
Is plunged in strife, intenser with the hours. 
Dehumanized to beasts, each famined, each devours?" 

59 



"Behold it! Is it not insanity, 
Worse than the dreams that even madness tell, 
Distempers that dehumanize humanity. 
Them driving on to such destructions fell 
As sing to earth a wild funereal knell 
On all man's hopes? Oh is it not a curse 
Of black annihilation and a hell 
Of blight on all the travailing ages nurse? 
No heav'n born imprecations could expel 
More blasting rain than this that does unpurse, 
Full sevenfold vials of v^rath and growing worse and worse." 

"Behold yon mangled fields and chocking trenches, 
Mangled and chocked and horrible with dead, 
A new plowed land that crimson virtue drenches. 
With fragments strewn, entrails, leg, arm and head 
And ghastly forms hacked till the life has fled ! 
Still o'er it sweeps a lightning blasting fire, 
Above explode great canisters of lead, 
And down is rained annihilating ire; 
It is the damnedest ever done or said, 
A demon's dream when wines infernal sire 
The dreams from which they shrink, too dreadful for desire!" 

"There are two lines, the best earth ever bred. 
Life's noblest types, pure product and delight. 
With virtuous heart and glory on the head, 
The very heav'ns doth welcome and invite 
Their presence to the thrones upon the height. 
Then is a blast of fiercest indignation. 
Then is a moment's blindness on the sight, 
Then is a groan of travailing lost creation. 
Then silence on the science powers that smite; 
And all for what? Oh what a consummation 
To Life and Love and Truth an i this great civilization? 

"Oh what a mad destruction fierce and fell 
On all of time's and life's great institutions, 
A blast of fire as from the mouth of hell 
Upon the priceless cosmic evolutioijs! 
What reasonless, fanatic executions 
On education, industry and state 
And all that base and offer man solutions 
From these eternal strifes that ever wait 
To sunder man and tramp in vile pollutions! 
Oh what a loss! Oh what a guilt and weight 
Upon the world and life beneath this murd'rous hate!" 

60 



"How infinite this desecrates the man! 
These highest hopes that earth did ever nurse, 
So rich endowed unto a cosmic plan 
And marched unto a cosmopolitan verse, 
And then brought up before a blasting curse, 
And cheaper than the breeds of savage tongue, 
And blinder than the night that doth immerse, 
And ruthless as old Nature ever flung. 
And quicker than the lightning can unpurse, 
And worthless as the weeds around them sprung 
The royal race of man is just a new earth dung." 

"Reason! Reason! Thou hope of all mankind! 
Thou spirit of these climbing civilizations. 
That leads the world from beasts and prisons blind 
Up, up the steeps of glorious exaltations! 
Thou parent of the dreamed-of recreations 
When all earth tribes and languages and shores 
Shall mount above to life's rich consummations 
And leave behind their blind infernal wars! 
Kin-soul to those that reign on heaven's stations 
Now thou are tramped 'neath earth's most bloody gores, 
Tramped and tramped and tramped on these rank slaughtered floors 

"Worse, worse, far worse than all the loss of man 
Is this blank loss out of the world's great heart. 
The high ideals of sacred Power and Plan 
That guides the world with his celestial chart! 
See how the blind and insane lightnings dart 
Into the soul and there forever smite 
'The Fatherhood of God,' and deadly bart 
As if to it a more intenser spite 
A wrath that slays 'The Brotherhood of Man!' 
Who can believe in God, truth, love and right 
When these fierce hosts of hell so slaughter in our sight!" 

"Then hark ye hierarchial Souls of crime! 
Can it be strange these desecrations nurse 
Life's sorrows sore unto a height sublime, 
And passion from its anger should unpurse 
An utt'rance large and loaded with a curse? 
On these blind powers that doth their power abuse, 
On these great States that greed and hate immerse, 
On these proud souls that light and truth refuse. 
Now let me fling a far resounding verse, 
That they will scorn and still destruction choose, 
That they will instant slay but life should never lose." 

61 



"Grermany, stand forth! 'What! So instant here! 
tJnto the judgment leapest thou so keen. 
The elements defying without fear! 
Thou art a noble shape; this old terrene 
Throughout the girth a better never seen; 
Thou art a scientific cosmic breed; 
Wealth, knowledge, power and social virtues green 
Must be the dope that doth sustain and feed; 
Resourceful, wise, erect and swift and lean, 
A, spirit called vast human hosts to lead 
But lost, blind lost an hour in earth's contagious greed." 

"Draw up thyself, for mightier far than thou 
Humanity an hour on thee presidest. 
Upon thy high expansive cosmic brow 
Doth sit the curse thou from thy spirit hidest. 
A curse, world blasting curse, in thee abidest 
At infinite diameters and strife 
To that high grace the cosmic soul confidest 
Unto thy care to recreate all life. 
A greed of power, a selfishness the widest, 
And vast ambition whom thou didst wed as wife 
Have torn thee on a course with tangled curses rife!" 

"Thou are the cause, the first clear primal cause 
Of this mad strife that so destroys the earth. 
Ambition's poison did slay the sacred awes 
That gives to life her most supremest worth, 
And unto power, prosperity and mirth 
Did sow the dreams of high exalted station. 
Since greed and power brings ever pride to birth 
Thou wouldst assume the leadership of nations, 
Dethrone the free, ride on the boundless girth, 
Teach every son the soldier's fierce elations, 
Dream drunk ambition's schemes of world wide dominations/' 

"Peace overtures were treated with defiance, 
The weaker states were trampled without fear. 
Thou buildest state with science wise appliance 
For that great hour thou sawest, drawest near. 
What wonder that each national compeer 
Did stand and gaze, debating with great Life 
Their hopes to live upon the struggling sphere? 
All saw the doom. The lightning flashing knife 
Time's curtain cut and each soul like a seer 
Beheld the world plunged in volcanic strife; 
Thou, many, strong and armed didst nurse it as a wife," 

62 



"And when the royal Austrian did receive 
The natural consequence, what then didst Thou? 
Against all hope, 'gainst all we can believe 
Thou didst inspire in them the when and how 
To plant the heel upon the Serbian brow. 
And when the Russ sprang forth to his defense'"" ' 
And nations did their own existence vow, 
Thy mighty armies, swift, ruthless and immense, 
Just like old Nature with her earthquake plow, 
Drove headlong on devoid of righteous sense, 
Quick filled the world with strifes of mad omnipotence." 

"And then thy church and scientific seers 
Unto the world most civilized did call 
For faith and hope and swore to their compeers : 
'This war was thrust upon us and we all 
Must fight for life though death the world appall!' 
Oh tear the lie forth from thy heart and hand! 
Why should the false thy spirit so enthrall! 
Hast thou not strength to front the truth and stand 
Upon the facts! Shall self deceptions stall 
The judgment off and thy denials command 
The elemental minds that think in every land!" 

"Red origin and cause, look on thy deeds! 
Behold the mighty masses of thy slain! 
This slaughter house and butchery of breeds 
And thou thyself as blind, lost and insane! 
See thine own sons that science doth domain, 
On whom doth shine a cosmic glory great, 
The primest souls earth ever did attain. 
Designed and taught for leadership of state. 
Behold them slaughtered and slaughtering in their tram 
As scientific butchers none can mate! 
As maggot meat and dung, thy sons but contemplate!" 

"Behold yon crown, that crown of living blood! 
Ten million murders have into it been strained. 
A world of hearts here poured the precious floo<i. 
All hell-born crimes have into it been stained 
And Life's worst life has into it been drained; 
Around the base, up to the peaks, and where 
Bright glowing jewels should be is fully veined 
With flowing blood, with blood that thou didst dare 
To ruthless shed and more than death disdained. 
This crown of blood with guilt so rich and rare 
I place it on thy brow, Thou shalt it ever wear!" 

63 



"Hark! Canst thou not hear that cry of lamentation? 
Vast orphan hosts that for their fathers weep; 
The war-wed brides are breathing imprecation; 
Great widow hosts are chanting dirges deep 
And even sires feel curses in them leap- 
Sad Rachel there, the mother of humanity, 
And Adam strong their sorrows cannot keep. 
Now on their loss, now on thy blind inanity, 
Now round thy soul the heavy dirges sweep; 
Now plumb down plumb as curses on profanity 
The guilt of all this strife strikes on thy inhumanity." 

"Oft, oft alone, lighted by sunlike thought, 
Softer in soul and finer in thy sense. 
Thou surely shalt by Memory stern be brought 
To travel up and down this line immense 
To see and think. Then power now is suspense, 
Thy conscience dead, shall mount unto its throne; 
Her solemn words of vast omnipotence 
Shall reach thy soul that never dare disown; 
Disrobed of mask, falsehood and all defence, 
Tortures and guilt shall then be freely known, 
Repentance or despair, darkness and tears and groan. 

"Look on the past! A worse is yet to come; 
Behold thy deeds of crimson crimson red! 
Though thou art bold thou wilt be 'ghast and dumb 
And feel the curse that rests above thy head. 
Though .swift success has to the moment led 
And victory last upon thy banners fly 
From thine own heart is sure disaster fed 
And soon or late thou shalt beneath it lie, 
For pride and greed Fate marks as for the dead. 
Depart, depart, chaotic cosmos high, 
A brand is on thy brow, a blindness on thy eye!" 

"England, stand forth! Haste thee! Why art thou slow? 
Art thou afraid and dost thou dread the hour 
And shunest Life as if she were thy foe? 
Stand up to judgment! Gather up thy power 
For thou wilt need thy ancient virtuous dower! 
The elemental spirit of the globe 
And she upon the cosmic azure bower 
Doth call thee up and will thy being probe. 
Now thou art here thou standest like a tower; 
Dost thou Invite the lightning to disrobe, 
Fire, wind and flood and foe to test thee like a Job?" 

64 



"Does not some dark disintegrating curse 
Upon thy heart and in thy vitals prey? 
Does not disease unconscious and so woise 
Eat out the strength, defiance, front and stay 
That glowed in thee in thy more ancient day? 
Does not the test, the elemental fight, 
Old nature's hour, the first born champion fray, 
The naked strife, now in all human sight. 
Write vast interrogations on thy way? 
Is thy day done? Has another now the right 
To full disarmour thee and clothe her in thy might?" 

"Now here thou art, old mistress of the sea, 
Long ruling Queen before high heaven's face, 
The mother of great institutions free, 
The colonizer of the world, the base 
Of glorious Liberty, promise and grace 
Of that great age that feeds life and delight 
And long the hope of all the human race 
For civilization, for manhood and for right. 
But now alas! When nature sets the pace. 
Before the world's wide wide astonished sight 
With hardly strength to stand an elemental fight." 

"Thou has been deaf and dumb and blind asleep; 
The whole world saw the prophecies of life. 
And warning blasts swept mountain, plain and deep 
And thee they shook, oft, oft with anguish rife. 
To wake and see the swift approaching strife; 
But like a giant, old, heavy, slow and blind. 
Too fat to feel the soldier's piercing fife 
Thou safest in the sunshine soft and kind 
And lost the power to wield the lightning knife; 
But day and night thy secret foes did bind 
Their armour to their soul and great war plans designed. 

"Then when the war blasts sudden shock the earth 
How didst thou rise with bluster loud and great! 
Thou wouldst ride down all military birth 
And on them build a new and peaceful state 
That thou wouldst lead and henceforth dominate! 
How confident thou didst go to the fires 
But like the vainest challenger of fate 
Thou couldst not stand the cinerating ires 
All things reduce. Sad, sad to contemplate 
Thee swiftly shorn of prestige pomp at"^ires 
And seeming lost and dead the virtue of thy sirei." 



"When waging war, war for thy very life, 
Henceforth the free or slaves of pride and power. 
Queen of the sea, the Future's chosen wife. 
Or else a thing to hide and crouch and cower, 
Now, even now internal strifes divide 
Thy strength, doth thee divide, defame and curse 
Far more than ought the enemy can shower. 
Thy high ?<nd low from selfish greeds unpurse 
Such vices as would mine high heaven's tower 
And the very gods that crown the universe 
Plunge to defeat and night and evermore immerse/' 

"A year is gone and thou art just awake, 
Just rising up and rubbing out thine eyes ; 
Not even yet its seriousness can take. 
Just standing with half wonder and surprise, 
Unmeasuring still the foes that 'gainst thee rise. 
You need the punch, a trampling neath defeat, 
Thy London flamed or the invader's prize; 
Some shame, gigantic shame on thee should seat 
And slavery face the soul that in thee lies; 
Then thou wouldst spring and in thy bosom beat 
The soldier, man and priest the future glad would greet," 

"A year is gone and still divisions prey. 
The 'future on the sea' and fierce elation 
'To grasp the trident' are victors on their waj^ 
And all thy hopes are in some other nation, 
To hold thee up against their exaltation. 
Oh shadow of past greatness ? Is not a curse 
On thee? Where is the fight? Does this creation 
Thy .successor call that will thy strength disburse? 
The vast round globe in doubtful agitation 
Stands wondering if thou canst yet unpurse 
The one united soul that can thy foes disperse." 

"But if the curse and cancer are too deep, - 
If sordid self, ign'rance and social blight 
Have eaten out the virtues that can keep 
The royal place both at the front and height, 
Still let the Fates rule in resistless might! 
Naught can withstand old Nature's sweeping train; 
Who has the power is victor in the fight 
And they must pass who hinder tmd restrain. 
So thou didst rise, so didst thou hold thy right; 
So evermore the destines ordain; 
go overmore must state arise and pass domain l"' 

66 



^'Great Nation that did bring so much to "birth. 
That gave so rich the elements of soul, 
That feed so free the virtues of old earth, 
That sighted heart unto life's shining goal, 
That lodged in mind the solar thoughts that pole, 
That gave the love of liberty to Life, 
And sent hosts forth unto the years tbat roll 
As soldiers true that breast the tyrant's strife. 
To think thee thus, to dream defeat and toll, 
It woundeth heart, it pierces like a knife 
Into the heart of love bereaved of child and wife." 

"Hear thou the truth! By it earth must abide! 
If thou dost lead the world in civilization, 
If on thy soul the cosmic virtues ride, 
If thou canst grace the peaks of domination 
And lead the race to life's new recreation, 
Then still abide, forever hold thy place, ^ 

Call up thy powers in swift rejuvenation, 
Purge out the curse, fling far the dark disgrace 
And rise again out of thy degredation! 
Reclothe thee like the fathers of thy race. 
And wage the ruthless war to life's victorious base!" 

"But if not such, if thy great work is done. 
If thy best contributions have been made. 
If thou art now a fading setting sun. 
And another must with new resources weighted 
Lead on the world and lift her rearrayed 
And new inspired unto a nobler chart. 
If another soul, wise, cosmic and obeyed 
Can draw the heart out of this human heart 
And lift it to the light so long betrayed. 
Then let her come! Allegiance I must bart. 
Doubt resteth over thee. Depart, I sigh, depart!" 

"United States, stand forth! Ha! On the spot! 
I^eaping forth as to a benediction! 
Oh Soul, thou art too young, keen, swift and hot 
To front the judgment! 'Tis but a fiction 
To self and wealth that never dreams restricftion. 
Too young and full and rich art thou to think, 
And unacquaint with tribulating friction 
With which old Europe in her conflicts sink. 
But barken! I will put 'daggers in the diction' 
And send them home through pleasure, strife and swink 
And from thy wounded heart new draughts thy soul shall drink. 

G7 



"There is a curse, an unadulterated, 
Uncompounded and quintessential curse 
Within thy soul, and ever fatter fed 
By riches vast that nature doth unpurse 
And by thy greed still growing worse and worse. 
There is a curse of vast portentous sign 
Within thy heart. Piosperity doth nurse 
The causes dread, contagious and malign. 
The virtuous Powers that crown the universe 
Beholdeth thee with solemn solemn eyne, 
And fear a final blight to Life's ideals divine." 

"War is a test that tries life to the deep. 
See this gigantic and infernal strife! 
See these new scientific breeds that sweep 
Destructions and annihilations rife 
Upon themselves and all the hopes of life! 
These battles see that shake the whole creation 
Like nature with her lightning flashing knife 
Blasting the mass, betweens and every station 
And all ideals religions ever wife! 
See all the tribes in blindest impulsation 
On one another drive Death's swift annihilation!" 

"The test supreme tries thee and thou dost fail; 
This strife that points a new aeonic age. 
From nature, man and state strips off all mall 
To nakedness, and Life writes on her page 
The essences, the elements all cage; 
Now thou art found a servant of the mart, 
A barterer as battles deadly wage, 
A dealer in the lightning slaying art, 
Trader in death, in blood and strife and rage, 
Blind as a beast to life's celestial chart. 
Gloating on gold that feeds corruption to thy heart!" 

"Behold thyself, the youngest, richest state, 
In this new sphere brought forth for larger hope, 
Undowered with resources that might make 
A commonwealth high up on heaven's slope. 
In birth and youth and in that mighty cope 
For Liberty thou wert a glorious dream 
And Life's desires that in the blindness grope 
Beheld the lights that through the darkness gleam! 
Free institutions, democratic dope, 
Expansions vast and prophecies did seem 
The virtues long desired that would the world redeem!" 



"But now, thou art a ghastlier sight than fields 
Of slaughtered dead and slaughtering hosts insane, 
For thy munition plants with groaning yields 
The instruments annihilations rain. 
Then think themselves as virtuous from ail stain. 
That mighty strife has ancient roots and cause 
That makes them blind, mad, savage and profane; 
But thou dost know and keep no other law 
But thy one love, the love of sordid gain. 
The base desire destroys all sacred awe, 
More greed and death and shame, it in and round doth draw/ 

"Does Germany now lead this civilization? 
Is she the hope of this long travailing race? 
Does victory, her science domination 
Mean for the v/orld a recreating base 
On which mankind will rise with glorious grace? 
Her efficiency might well inspire the world. 
Does not the cosmic Soul smile on her face? 
There reasgn's powers, elsewhere so blindly whirled^ 
Builds up a state that Life might glad embrace. 
If right and true why art thou on her hurled? 
If best for man and life why blast her flag unfurled?" 

"But when didst thou such questions e'er debate? 
The high philosophies of life and time 
Didst thou e'er see and pause to contemplate? 
The sacred awes and fellowships sublime 
Of that wise world above this strife and crime 
Is blind to thee, is full eclipsed and blind, 
Is lost and dead and buried in the grime 
That covers thee as thou dost groan and grind 
To gather, heap, and view the gold so prime. 
Lost, lost to thought! Far, far from all divined! 
Cold, cold to life and love! Dead, dead to all designed!'* 

"The Mother see, bulwark of liberty. 
The parent soul from whom thy soul was fed, 
Who gave the best that still is found in thee 
And who is now the front and stay and head 
Of all the hopes democracy has bred! 
If just a little change upon the sea 
Thy full resource against her would be led 
To blast her strength and blast her liberty 
Into the deep as to a scopion's bed. 
Her virtues high have small appeal to thee; 
High gleaming piles of gold are thy divinity." 

69 



'"And then thou mouthest of .lumaiiitv, 
Of justice, friendship, honor, law and right, 
And brandest Germany for her insanity 
And England in her exercise of might, 
Both desperate in a fierce and final fight. 
Hark, hark ye hosts! How, how can such a priest 
The ideals preach into a world of blight? 
And now c?nst thou who doth supremely feast 
On marts and gold preach to these passions white 
Life's saving dreams that come out of the east. 
But never come to thee, thy soul blind and deceased?" 

"Behold thyself! In all that recreates 
The man, the city, state and wider nation, 
Unto the dreams that Wisdom contemplates 
And haileth as the crowns of civilization. 
In all true greatness, virtue and exaltation 
Thou hast one strife but priest or poet none 
The world can hail as helpers to its station. 
In all that makes life worthy to be run, 
Deeds, visions, songs and glorious inspiration 
There is small hope in thee. Thou an undone 
By blind material greeds, greeds that are just begun!" 

"Imposing Soul, with great resources vast, 
Thou art a disappointment unto Life! 
The chosen seed, the time the sower cast. 
This hemisphere so far removed from strife 
And over thee Life's hopes with hope so rife, 
And now when in the furnace test thou art 
A dread disease that Death alone can wife 
Reveals itself as central to thy heart. 
Too deep, too deep for any surgeon's knife; 
Of all the disappointments time doth bart 
Thou art the greatest yet. Depart, fat Soul, depart!" 

"Oh Life! Oh Man! Oh State! Why should the Soul 
In all her long historic contemplations 
See bright above the splendors of life's goal. 
And then below the ancient degradations 
Forever cling to these high civilizations? 
Why should the evolution from the slime 
Of savage beast unto the thinker's stations 
Forever hold such vast gigantic crime 
As now and then doth slay all inspirations. 
The inspirations by which the thinkers climb 
Life's mountain peaks to view far ages pure and prime?" 

TO 



"Why must Life's sorrows, loss and indignation 
Oft, oft, so oft her faith and hope immerse 
As she beholds the powers that crown all station 
Turn beasts again, ferocious, mad and worse? 
Why should such sight within her spirit nurse 
All passions white and feed her with despair. 
Till blind and lost she utters forth a curse 
Upon the curse on man and earth and air? 
Why should the hopes that crown the universe 
Oft hold debate, if man so wise and fair 
Be but a brute disguised, short distance from his liar?" 

"Here now we see the world's triumvirate. 
Abounding wealth and liberty and science. 
The three great Powers Life did congratulate 
And struck with them her long and last alliance. 
Behold them now! In deadliest defiance 
Of all the hopes that maketh life a hope 
They arm themselves with every death appliance 
And deck with mangled dead this cosmic slope. 
Life, Love and Hope must lose their old reliance 
As they behold this fierce titanic cope 
Of life's supremest powers and war's insanest dope." 

"Oh curse and dirge! Oh sorrow and fierce hate! 
Betw^een ye two the world doth ever swing. 
The thinkers wise that ever contemplate 
Would see the world that Hg^pe would ever bring. 
But see this sense and greed besotten thing. 
No wonder that the mighty conflicts urge 
The desperate hate that must its curses fling, 
But Oh so vain to stay and heal and purge; 
Must utter curse and oft in sorrow sing 
Some fragment strains of life's eternal dirge 
That moaneth round the earth like the eternal surge.'* 

"Titanic wrath! Vast earthquake rending strife! 
Your passion fills and drives me blind and tense. 
Ye have straight struck all dream of hope and life 
And worlds fall down in ruins most immense, 
Worlds, ruined worlds of morals, mind and sense 
Have fallen round like earthquake shattered wrecks. 
Life's ideal hopes and wisdom and defense 
Are dead and hacked, and all that henceforth decks 
The future slopes is strife new greeds incense. 
And other wars that ever curse and vex 
With little hope that Life shall make diviner treks." 

71 



"Cease, cease the song! Give brain and bosom rest! 
Oh let soul pause and let her calmer think! 
Into the infinite and as a guest 
Let spirit go and thought and virtue drink! 
As down in elemental being sink 
The white hot passions of intensest ire, 
And mindless of the fates upon life's brink 
Are there refilled with a serener fire, 
SO' let me pass from all I hate and shrink 
Into the Soul wise thinkers most desire! 
Faith, Hope and Love again, revisit and inspire!" 



THE STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER 

No. 3 

The Stars and Stripes Forever! 
'Tis a nation shaking time; 
There is darkness, strife and slaughter 

Like the elements in crime; 
There is passion fierce and glowing 

Round the earth in every clime. 
Like the shoutings round the colors 
To the world the Sisters chime: 
The Stars and Stripes Forever! 
Shout, shout it to the strife! 
, The Stars and Stripes Forever, 
To the shot and shell and knife! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever, 

To our last resources rife! 

The Stars and Stripes Forever, 

Is far deeper than our life! 

The Stars and Stripes Forever! 

Thus the nation shouted then 
When the shouter must be soldier 
And the struggle called for men. 
Is another strife before us? 

Must the free for freedom bout? 
Lift her up and springing forward 
Shake the nation with the shout: 
The Stars and Stripes Forever! 

Never, ne'er so much as now! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever, 

On her altars all I vow! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever, 
Though the sword my being plow! 

72 



The Stars and Stripes Forever, 
Be forever o'er my brow! 

The Stars and Stripes Forever! 

There's a blessing in the curse; 
From the strife the struggle bringeth 

Souls that front the universe. 
To the selfish fling defiance 

Though death darkness doth immerse! 
In sacrifice the soul is found 

That the world delights to nurse. 
The Stars and Stripes Porever, 

When the nation feels the need! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever, 

When she calls the ancient breed! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever, 

When the sword must do the deed! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever! 
We will follow! Let her lead! 

The Stars and Stripes Forever! 
Oh behold her on the height! 
Now around her is a glory- 
That to free men feeds delight. 
There are soldiers, struggles, victors, 

Richest mem'ries, richer hopes, 
And an earthquake shaking shouting 
That is climbing heav'n's slopes: 
The Stars and Stripes Forever! 

To the heav'ns roll her free! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever, 
Has resistless power and plea! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever, 

We have vowed our lives to thee! 
The Stars and Stripes Forever, 
Oh forever o'er us be! 



THE HIGHLAND PIPERS 

I stoop upon the Campus square 

To watch old Scotland pass. 
The city's thronging crowds were there 

In sea like surge and mass. 
Beside me jesters laughed galore 

At kilts and tartan stripes; 
Contempt and keen sarcasms tore 

The music of the pipes. -- 

73 



Then instant something^ in the blood 

Sprang up as out of sleep, 
And passion like a rushing flood 

Did into action leap. 
It tore away the sense of years; 

It flred the heart and tongue; 
And like old Scotland's fighting peers 

It down upon them sprung: 

"Who, who are ye that grinning' mock 

My native tartan stripes, 
And laughter, jest and scornings fling 

On piper and his pipes? 
This costume strange and strident strain 

Is but life's thin disguise. 
But measure now with those that march 

And thou wilt find thy size." 

"The connoisseurs and .sonneteers 

And guilded things of grace 
May throw their snifflings on our ears 

And jest upon this race; 
But those who fought to set Life free,. 

The strong', scarred, rough and fine,. 
Delighted cry when these they spy: 

'Here comes the fighting line,' " 

"Of all the greatness in the earth, 

The highest great is man; 
One such outweighs the globe in worth. 

Strikes out our noblest plan. 
A very few Life in relief 

Sets up for all to scan; 
A man alone can be a chief 

And piper of the clan." 

"Upon old Scotland's heather hills. 

Old Nature breeds a race; 
Her elemental passion fills 

For front and foremost place. 
To march them on to high renown, 

To match both friends and foes. 
The pipers march them up and down 

As life is maiched and glows." 

"At Waterloo they were reserved, 

Until a doomsday hour; 
Then sudden loosed, they onward swept 

74 



With avalanchic power. 
At Balaklava's deathless charge 

The line did they not lead; 
Behold! Behold! They hellward rush, 

A death defying breed." 

"In Europe and in Asia old, 

Here where life higher runs, 
All round the globe, the pipers bold 

Have led old Scotland's sons. 
All nations cherish and reward 

Their heroes high and grand. 
But soul to soul and sword to sword 

Few with the pipers stand." 

"Though now they march for Scotland's name. 

And now for civic pride, 
And now for pleasure, now for fame, 

And now for those who died; 
They never march so straight and tall 

With soldier-piper glee, 
As when they hear old Freedom call 

To battle for the free." 

"Whenever Freedom leads the fight. 

There gather doth the clans; 
The passion elemental, white. 

Old Scotland feeds and fans. 
She is the foremost in the fight. 

The fiercest in the strife, 
The clans and pipers, left and right, 

Carve out the way of Life," 

"I love the artists and the arts, 

Great orchestras and bands. 
The golden lyre and lyric fire 

Of swift poetic hands. 
Though breeding never can deny 

Old Glory's stars and stripes. 
Birth has her claim and greets with flame. 

The Highlanders and pipes/ 



SCOTCH WAR SONG 

Old Scotland dear! Old Scotland dear! 

With floods of flaming passions 
Thy sons are mounting up the sphere 

In soldier hero fashions, 

75 



Thy presence and thy tfunipet blast 

The soul in soul has sounded; 
Thy sons and daughters round the earth 
To thee have instant bounded. 
Old Scotland live! Forevet live! 
Nor life nor death shall sever! 
My country to the endless age 

Oh perish never, never! 
But Scotland and great Liberty 
Forever and forever! 

We fight because the fighting blood 

Within our veins is leaping. 
The war hosts like a blinded flood 

Are rising, rushing, sweeping. 
Great Liberty is calling loud; 

Our answer fills the arches: 
"Our sons and daughters must be free 

On life's immortal marches." 

Old Scotland live! Forever, live! etc. 

Great Wallace, Bruce and Douglas yet 

Both high and low are feeding; 
The Gordens, Campbells, Camerons, Macs, 

The old line yet are breeding. 
The rich red crimson stream of yore 

Within the breast is flowing. 
The spirit of the fathers old 

Is burning, flaming, glowing. 

Old Scotland live! Forever live! etc. 

My Country, I am proud of thee! 

Thou in me now art singing. 
Thy sons unto the latest man. 

Unto the ranks are springing. 
The strong, ancestral, native soul 

Is girding, arming, sighting; 
And every Scot around the globe 

Is standing up and fighting'. 

Old Scotland live! Forever live! etc. 

The highlands and the lowlands send 

Strong —--•--'- as of granite. 
That man to man and sword to sword 

Can front all on the planet. 
There is the sound to forward march; 

We're into action flying. 
For Scotland, Liberty and Right 

76 



We battle to the dying. 

Old Scotland live! Forever live! 

Nor life nor death shall sever! 
My country to the endless age 

Oh perish never, never! 
But Scotland and great Liberty 

Forever and forever! 



LINCOLN 

1809-1865 

Oh Nature rich! Ripe Virtue of the nation! 
High Spirit pure enthroned upon the height! 
A type supreme of higher soul creation 
That grows divine unto our mortal blight! 
Thou feedest to our far-uplifted sight 
The greatest need of life and time and nations, 
For thou wert one the powers of truth and right 
Sent into life, and up our hard gradations 
Trained thee for strife against the storms of night. 
Victorious sou] ! Spirit of inspirations ! 
One of the dreams of man! One of God's high creations! 

Cruel Nature was and yet most kind to thee 
When thou wert cast down at the base of life 
For at the base great things and men must be. 
Thy towering strength, ungainly gaunt, was rife 
With jest and many a sharp sarcastic knife 
Cut into thee. The kind old rugged nurse 
Bound up thy wounds, and with a Spartan fife 
Bade thee to stand and face the powers that curse. 
She put thee up against the growing strife 
And with thy growth did stir the elements worse, 
Until at last, alone, strong as the universe. 

Oft, often locked in many a mortal strife, 
The vanctuished spared or flung off bruised or dead. 
Thou, rising up with fountains of new life, 
Bidst front the men who shook earth with their tread. 
Into the pass where hosts in vain had bled 
The mother thrust and knew that thou wouldst van 
The world, for thy humanity was red 
For generous life and for all men did plan. 
Strong was the arm, high, high the lighted head. 
Wise, wise the eye that did the nation scan 
When V^^^ orp:^mc strength took up the cause of man. 

77 



There was a day when Liberty's youn^ nation 
Desired a man to save the institutions. 
"Arise, arise!" she cried in desperation, 
"Against the storms, traitors and executions 
That threaten death to time's best evolutions ! " 
Thou camest forth. The nation saw. Great Right 
Sprang up and spurned her abject prostitutions. 
Ready for war but shrinking from the fight, 
Forth to the strife, defying soft solutions, 
Into the black and lightning flashing night 
To victory they went with thy contagious might. 

Though those four years, blood-stained and stormed and plowei 
What heavy weights and crimson, crimson tears 
Thy spirit shed and often body bowed! 
The stress of war eclipsed the world with fears, 
But thou wert found, one of creation's peers, 
A grand old type that man forever hails 
And stations high to crown these mortal spheres, 
Tall leader strong, gath'ring the line that fails; 
A hero true the battle front reveres; 
Courage and faith that o'er assault prevails; 
A master man of men no time or greatness pales. 

High, generous "and most maganimous soul! 
Pine quality, the rarest in the earth! 
Part of the Infinite whose virtues roll 
And now and then find being from the dearth! 
Man's moulds were broke; time's standards of all worth 
Destroyed; ideals old dethroned, and new 
Conceptual forms rose to immortal birth. 
Plain, simple, honest, common and warm and true, 
Thy rich magnanimous soul of saving mirth 
Leads hence the mind to the highest heights we view, 
And man and life and time in form divine renew. 

Leader, martyr, prophet and president. 
Where the great cosmopolitan councils meet, 
Those spirits vast unanimous in consent 
Invite thee up to their presiding seat. 
Famed Congregation, where the ages greet 
Each other, and time's mightiest souls unite 
To rain on earth the life that is our meat. 
Out of your ^o«+c: of genius, lore and might. 
Song, courage, faith, self-sacrifice and feat. 
Have ye but one that measures to his height? 
A higher type of man to rule you as his right? 



Though far aloft and growing more divine, 
More wide the years and intervening space* 
Rare magic powers out of thy spirit twine 
And bind thee close, still closer to our race. 
The ripe humanity upon thy face. 
Thy warm hand-clasp and eyes inviting kind 
Draw into life out of our hearts' embrace, 
"Father," "'Brother," 'Prophet," and names that bind 
The hearts of men across all time and pl8ce. 
Plain Spirit great, through thee we are divined. 
Thou feedest us with life; through thee we are divined. 



GRANT 

1822-1885 

Men like a fighter. The elemental life 
That surges up and drives the universe 
With this convulsive strain and endless strife 
Leaps into soul and doth forever nurse 
Desire for him no battles can coerce. 
Men like the man who fronts these grinding spheres, 
Defying Fate and all she can unpurse; 
That armored stands 'gainst darkness, death and fears 
And from the deep calls the eternal curse. 
When such a soul upon the globe appears 
Men stand in pause and feed the hunger of their years. 

And such wert thou, a true heroic soul; 
A noble type though in deceptive mould; 
So blinded Life that should our spirits pole 
Neglected thee. Thy mighty powers enrolled 
Were all penned up, and in that narrow hold 
Were battles fierce that rent thy globe with strife. 
Great spirit-gifts that find no end unfold 
Within the heart hell's elemental life. 
Who, who could dream thy spirit long unpoled 
Fought not dark fiends with fierce distempers rife 
And learned to wield a sword swift as the lightning's knife? 

When thou didst hear great Liberty's last call 
To free the world and ages of all slaves 
That mighty Soul thy spirit did enthrall 
And gave the sword but prophesied the graves; 
Such was the prize, but such as thou but craves 
The loyalty that sets the spirit free, 

79 



Erect and poised, calm, wise and strong, the waves 
Of strife dashed on tempestuous as tlie sea; 
±iut like a rock round which the tempest raves 
Thou didst out-think, out-wear, out-fight and be 
The genius of the strife and hope of victory. 

From Donalson to Appomattox close 
Thou foughtest on resistless as is Fate, 
Through bloody fields and earthquake rending throes 
Where Death all troops did fiercest mutilate 
Thou did'st press ok nor dreamed to hesitate. 
Life stood aghast. The world cried out in fear. 
Thy erstwhile friends did curses imprecate. 
Real "war is hell." To some thou didst appear 
A demon mad but blood could satiate; 
Yet through it all soft mercy stern and dear 
Sat on thy fighting soul to guide the world's career. 

Thy iron strength was wed to granite truth. 
Thy reverence for the laws was most sublime. 
Simplicity dwelt in thy heart with ruth 
And honor there with sovereign power did rhyme. 
Magnanimousness, the seal on spirits prime. 
Was stamped on thee by heaven's highest hand. 
Yet all of these passed through the fires like crime 
Till at the last thy spirit forth did stand 
A hierarchal prince and soul of time 
That Life and Man forever shall command, 
First, first in ruthless war! First, first in Mercy's band! 

If ever man stood on the adamant 
And manhood virtuous base and could dispense 
With childish paraphernalias that enchant 
The world, thou wert that man. Pride and pretence 
Are guilded twins and were to thee offense. 
Thy royal soul despised life's little shows 
And stood before the world in that defense 
That character and fiercest fight bestows. 
We cannot dream round thee the ornaments 
Of kings, and placed in royal lineage rows 
Thou towerest over them as conqueror over foes. 

Few, few, but few of all the soldier line 
Could cross full swords or stand up straight with thee. 
A Washington or Cromwell spirit fine 
That fights to set life's highest spirit free. 
Thy equals are, the most but butchers be. 
Great soldier chief, thou art a man's delight! 

80' 



Poise, power and grace shall never from thee flee! 
Who clears himself where giant spirits fight 
Draws giant men with swift resistless plea. 
In every man a soldier stands upright 
And meeting thee salutes with passions glowing white. 

When thou didst go life's last and lonely march 
Thy name and deeds were clothed with immortality. 
Musicians, troops, banners, applause and arch 
Conducted thee unto the high courtality 
Of Fame! With hosts of this mortality 
The eternal great did welcome thee on high. 
Bright splendor did adorn the wide portality 
And round it hosts of geniuses did cry: 
"Thrice welcome here, thou grand reality 
Of life! The state is Queen within this sky. 
Be thou her right hand strength and stand forever nigh." 

"For thou art one to pillar up a state. 
High elements were poured in thee at birth. 
Though almost snuffed by blind remorseless Fate 
Thou foughtest through the darkness, strife and dearth 
Unto these thrones of everlasting worth. 
Now this immortal Fellowship sublime 
That doth sustain and recreates the earth, 
Commissions thee unto an office prime: 
'Be thou thyself and to the nation's girth 
Rain thou thy life, and from repressive time 
Lead civic virtue up to our celestial clime ! ' " 



PEACE 

Celestial Peace! Great Nature! Soul divine! 
Incarnate Hope of all the best desire 
For which mankind doth ever pray and pine! 
Ripe Grace supreme to these contentions dire 
And with thy calm serene celestial fire 
Enthroned above all time and toil and strife. 
How could the world beneath the blinded ire 
Of nation against nation mad and rife 
But long for thee and all thou dost inspire! 
In this dread hour no wonder that great Life 
Hails thee with boundless joy and would thee wed as wife! 

Great Princess, Queen, Immortaless of earth 
Art thou, but yet no people, state or land, 

81 



Though thou wouldst be a heav'n unto their dearth 
Have thee enthroned and given full command. 
All thee delight to entertain, and stand 
With welcomes rich and songs that glorious hail 
And oft it seems thy reign is just at hand; 
But suddenly the endless strifes assail 
And slandered foul and sometimes with a brand 
Thou flLeest forth into the wild and wail, 
A stranger driven forth, an alien sad and pale. 

Today again from Europe thou hast fled; 
Gigantic .strife, distempered and profane. 
Against all hopes that man has ever fed 
Has driven thee who can alone sustain 
Life, virtue, thought, resources and domain. 
Look on the hour! Behold the prayer and plea! 
The heavens are called to bridle and restain 
And send us peace whate'er the price may be. 
Unmindful of the hopes that may be slain, 
Hopes of the wise, the dreams of high and free, 
Eternal hate to war, delight in liberty. 

One with thy name but most unlike to thee. 
Clad in thy robes and smiling with thy grace 
Our presidents and popes call us to see 
And lead her forth that life may fond embrace. 
Is this the soul to Queen this modern race? 
The spirit that can scepter this mankind? 
The honor that the world's foundations base? 
The virtue unto glorious ends designed? 
Is this the peace whose breast we might unlace 
And in its deep could never never find 
The curse that brings the wars that doth this human grind? 

Away, away with this huge masquerade! 
But hold! Let politics bring forth their dream! 
Tear off the rags from this false liveried jade 
And place her near her nature's far extreme! 
A harlot she, her progeny doth seem 
The selfish, cowards, traitors, liberticides. 
Abortions foul, deformities that stream 
From hell, corruption's brood, a spawn that hides 
From light and truth and with dishonors team! 
Away! Away! Give us the peace that rides 
On royal, royal truth and unto honor guides! 

Thou art the sister twin of Liberty 
Were ye not nursed at one maternal breast? 

82 



Did not the mother dream and tram in ye 
x^vo ciiarycters to crown all beings' crest? 
Were ye not sent in heav'nly virtues dressed, 
Twin spirits who would guide and lift mankind 
In courses rich, divine and great and blest! 
As she her inspirations doth unbind 
On battle fields where free and tyrant wrest, 
So thou a nobler destiny doth find 
In leading on the sphere as Reason high designed. 

Thou art our peace. For thee we bleed and bleed, 
Cry out in prayer, strong supplications pour, 
Bow down in soul, present our awful need, 
Unbind the wounds that bleed and bleed still more 
And lift them up to heav'n as all implore. 
Oh give us peace! We bleed we bleed for peace! 
The cry comes from being's inmost core, 
All ti availing ages lend the prayer increase. 
From all the earth it gathers strength and store 
And calls on God and heav'n and earth to cease 
The long infernal wars and rest supernal lease. 

Oh give us peace! For peace we bleed and bleed. 
All time has been but one eternal war. 
This selfishness and blind infernal greed 
Has drenched and drenched the heav'ns and earth in gore, 
Today far worse than ever drenched before. 
Oh give us peace! We bleed, we bleed for peace! 
Ten million men, the best earth ever bore, 
Are slaughtered and the slaughterings more increase. 
This slaughterhouse, butchers, infernal lore — 
Oh heav'n and earth, insane destructions cease! 
Behold and hear the prayer and hope unto us lease! 

But hark, peacemakers at all price! Intensest war 
Still on us send if not the lasting peace 
That cuts the cause out of the very core 
And bids the curse forever more to cease! 
Give us dread war, give strife a larger lease, 
Let all life's hopes be in the struggle slain; 
Bid men like fiends to more and more increase, 
And make all earth a savage pen and plain; 
Death, Science and old Hell, ye can release 
Your hoarded mounds and swift destruction rain 
Unless great Life shall give these glorious sisters twain. 

True Liberty and Peace! Celestial Twins! 
Pure Spirits that the earth alone can pole! 

83 



Hope Guardians wise! I'reserves from all sins 
And Builders of the ages that shall roll! 
Behold! Behold! There is life's golden goal! 
And here the kings and presidents and popes 
With prayer for peace at any price or toll. 
Draw to your neights! Ye are man's solar hopes! 
Demand your full integrity of soul! 
If granted, grant war's antidotal dopes; 
If not, spit on all philanlhropic tropes 
And kick them down the night, down down the blasted .slopes! 



LIFE'c^ DESIRE 

Oh War, War, War! Infinitudinal curse 
That smites the world with an infernal Pan, 
And with insanity entanglest man 
In deadly hates! Thou dost forever nurse 
Thy madness in these mortals, till worse and worse 

Doth grow the dread eternal strife 

That slays all hopes and dreams of life 
What time they mount and these horizons scan. 

All, all the world can bring to birth 

But feeds and crowns thee. Lord of earth. 
All down her course Life draws her doubtful breath; 
All living thou dost slay, the very Lord of death. 

What histories hast thou written on the earth 
Of fiery force, of vengeance, blood and lust! 
Oh what destroy from granduer unto dust 
Of all men are and all they hold of worth! 
Which of the long, long generations whose mirth 

Was not eclipsed by thee and thine! 

Which of the years that long untwine 
Was not with stain, deep crimson stain out-thrust? 

What nations, never pained and bowed 

When thee and thine together crov/d! 
What nations never loud, jubilant and free 
When thou in chains were thrust as hell's hound ought to be? 

Unhuman War! Infernal breed and birth! 
Thou changest earth to hell, till revels man 
As a maddened, drunk, unsatiated clan 
In blood and rapine, fire and lust. The earth 
In travailing agonies brings to the dearth 
Abortions and monstrosities, 

84 



Mad, mad with fierce ferocities 

Against the state formed to thought's glorious plan. 
No wonder that the rounded sphere 
Oft trembles and grows black with fear, 

For thou. Oh War, hast smitten with a curse 
All ages, peoples, hopes and all the best they nurse. 

Here on the crest of this time crowning age 
Still Thou dost reign and turnest man to brutes. 
Through all veneers the savagery outshoots. 
Fierce mangling Life at her supremest stage 
And gloating as on feasts when hungers rage. 

Religion, Liberty and Science, 

Life's last and best and firm alliance 
Thou greetest as with hell derision hoots. 

This dear, dear purchased civilization 

Against this monstrous miscreation 
Appalls the world, all life doth stand aghast, 
Immortal hopes are slain, a world dirge on the blast. 

Oh Peace, Oh Peace, Life calleth out for thee! 
The voice of earth and all her generations 
With thunder song of mountain intonations 
Is gathering round thy throne of victory 
In intercession to be forever free 

From this eternal boundless curse 

That all the hopes of life immerse. 
Through all the wars, strife, death and mutilations. 

Though bound in adamantine chain. 

Though crucified and often slain. 
Life ever sings with wider echoing tones 
For thy millennial peace, millennial powers and thrones! 

Thou hast the full resources for this life, 
Thou canst destroy the hoar iniquities 
Bequeathed to us by long antiquities 
Of crime. The feeders of this endless strife. 
The sons and swords of Mars, thy lightning knife 

Must blast and hurl into the dust 

To stay this blood contagious lust. 
O'er the wide host thy soft benignities 

And arching grace from heav'n above, 

As o'er the sick a mother's love. 
Can smother down time's heritage of ill 
And nurse out of the earth a race that thou dost fill. 

Thou canst destroy the insane hosts of war 
And politics of hell by which their course 
Is constant driven. This military force 



That nations drain and drive still more and more 
Thou canst cut out, out of the breast so sore. 

Cut out, cut out the gangrene strife! 

Breathe in, breathe in purpureal life 
And all that flows from thy divine resource! 

Strife, greed and crime, tears and dismay 

Thy grace can wipe them all away; 
All, all of war and its infernal blight 
Would fly before thy face as darkness from the light. 

Come thou on earth with thy exhaustless heart! 
Thou hast celestial and supremest powers. 
Thou hast the azure and immortal dowers 
Of sun-resplendent heaven. Thou hast and art 
The spirit pure that in all being flowers 
To splendor, joy and purity. 
The hopes of all futurity 
Doth dwell in thee and thou canst it impart. 
Sow, sow thy potencies of life! 
And from the very heart of strife 
Another world with beauty and delight 
Shall forth from chaos rise toward heaven's golden height. 

Come! Bring thy royal institutes of state! 

The high, supreme, majestic, honored laws 

And kin to these, those reverential awes 

Thy youth and age delight to contemplate 

As we behold the statues of the great. 

Peace, glorious peace and righteousness 
Thy nations shall with splendor dress. 

Faith, hope and joy, magnanimousness, applause, 
Shall be the ornaments of gold 
Each heart and brow shall then unfold. 

Come, come. Oh state! What business, rule and home 
Thy bases shall support, enkindle shall thy dome! 

Oh Peace, Oh Peace, who would not long for thee? 
Thou crowning all with virtues pure art crowned 
And from thy heart all gifts supreme abound 
As blessings from the azure pure and free. 
Thy passions with the white intensity 

Of love fills every welcome birth 

Of thy uncrowded crowded earth. 
Oh how the new created heavens resound 

With songs of ripest sanity! 

All life is one humanity! 
One human brotherhood! One family race! 
One many passioned heart that one heart does embrace! 



Come, come, Oh long delayed and golden age! 
The age of peace, of man and all his powers, 
Of Life's ideals and soaring sublimes! hom^s 
Of wise conception. Oh age that will engage 
The heightless height and boundless reach that cage 

Themselves in this finality! 

Oh age of immortality 
The fountains of the Infinite assuage, 

Come! Oh rise on time's foundation stones 

The splendors of thy everlasting thrones ! 
Come thou upon the morning's golden pinions 
And round the feet of God build thou thy last dominions i 



AN OLD-FASHIONED GEORGIA FATHER 



I stood within my cottage gate, 

And well drawn in with fear and hate 

Did watch the bully that did bait 

The boys draw nigh. 
There would he touch me? I did wait 

Him passing by. 

He stood and talked like any chap 
But going, gave me such a slap 
It sounded like a leather strap 

And stung with pain. 
I scarce the tears upon the rap 

Could full restrain. 

When supper did the table gown 
My father nearly knocked me down. 
And shame upon my brow did frowm 

When he would know 
"What I had done that then young Brown 

Did strike me so. 

"Nothing. He bullies all the boys. 
To fight us seems his best of joys. 
He's big and strong and makes a noise 

And wants to fight 
And knuckles on his fist employs 

To make them bite." 

Then father chocked, his cheeks gre\< red 
His eyes grew blazing in his head; 

S7 



A mighty passion from its bed 
Had sudden woke 

And with, all strength the furnace fed 
Thus to me spoke: 

"If in this town there is a man 

That lays a hand on you I'll tan 

His hide till black and blue. Now scan 

The big and strong, 
Your father dares to death the clan 

To right your wrong." 

"But if I see or ever hear 

You are a coward in your fear, 

And take abuses from your peer. 

And lie down base, 
A coward, slave, shaking and sheer 

Scab of disgrace" 

"I'll thrash you till you bleed and bleed 
Your very bones will break, and lead 
Your young soul cut and to it feed 

Till she is fed 
The thrashing you most certain need. 

Thrashed almost dead."^ 

"Within your soul the man Til find 
Or you are not your father's kind. 
A green peeled rod may swift unbind 

The soul that fights 
And matcheth with a heart and mind 

Its manhood rights." 

"I won't have you the cursed thing 
That men will spit on, hate and fling 
Out of their noble soldier ring. 

Better the grave 
For me and mine than hear men sing: 

'His boy's a slave.' " 

"Be peaceful, friendly, kind to all! 
Defend the cripples, weak and smallT 
But front the bullies strong and talL 

Stand up and fight! 
When there is need stand to the wall 

And land it right!" 

"To all the lengths of honor go 

To keep the peace with friend and foe 

But when disho-iored, strike the blow!! 



stand up and fight! 
Such men an iron fist can throw 
Defending right." 

"A boy that is a boy of mine 
And cannot front the firing line 
For Liberty and Right divine 

I'd shoot him dead; 
Nor would a flower of memory shine 

Above his head." 

"Now in your case, he'll strike once more; 
ril watch and see. It will go soie 
If with this high souled soldier lore 

You do not sweep 
And like a lion in his roar 

Upon him leap." 

Then he sat down. He could not eat 
I saw great sorrow on him seat; 
But something in me rose in heat 

And glowed in pride, 
And father's soul did in me beat 

And mine did ride. 

It later came as you have guessed. 
I had to fight and did my best; 
Both gave and took with equal zest 

A beefsteak face, 
That nature in a few days dressed 

But no disgrace. 

I see my father was a man, 

A royal chieftain of the clan, 

And struck for me life's noblest plan, 

I've yet to see 
Of all that in the world I scan 

Man more than he. 

Straight was he, level, plumb and square 
The more a man the more laid bare, 
A rich old fashioned soldier rare 

Of nature's plan, 
And she and Life speaks pointing there: 

"That is a man." 

From that far day to this one here 
I've never known the face of fear 

89 



But often paused and dropped a tear 
To think how he 

A double father without peer 
Still marches me. 



WHO LIVES IF ENGLAND DIES 

Who lives if England dies? 

She mothered first the free: 
Did plant the royal race 

All round the boundless sea; 
Oft battled for their rights 

As highest human prize; 
Now for the world she fights; 

Who lives if England dies? 

For glorious Liberty 

Her very king she slew; 
Drove out a tyrant race 

Brought in a freedom new. 
Life's high immortal breeds 

With Liberty doth rise; 
'Tis' liberty life needs; 

Who lives if England dies? 

Stand up ye free born race! 

The battle calls ye now; 
Life doth with death embrace, 

Which foot shall brand which brow? 
If in the mighty strife 

Thy country prostrate lies, 
Can Life stand up erect? 

Who lives if England dies? 

Here soldiers first are men, 

There men are soldiers first; 
These two types are apart 

As blest and double cursed. 
Life beckons unto man, 

The soldier doth despise; 
Which is the type we breed? 

Who lives if England dies? 

There soldiers rule the man; 

Here man the soldier rules. 
War sketches their life plan, 

90 



Life Liberty here schools. 
Here promises and hopes; 

There doubt and fear and sighs; 
Debate, debate the case! 

Who lives if England dies? 

This vast and iron machine 

Dynamic, wise and great. 
Mounts heavy up the globe 

To rule all life and state. 
Should force not pass away? 

Peace universal rise? 
All peoples for her pray, 

Who lives if England dies? 

The best of all the earth 

Are mothers of the man; 
Most noble, kings of worth, 

Who bring life's larger plan. 
Great Liberty, the nurse 

Of man unto us flies; 
Are we Life's hope or curse? 

Who lives if England dies? 

The World and Life and Time, 

Dreams, Visions, Joys and Hopes 
With horror see the crime 

That drenches heaven's slopes. 
All free born breeds and clans 

Stretch here their hungry eyes. 
Each asking as he scans: 

Who lives if England dies? 



BALLAD OF THE "REAR GUARD" 

A vet'ren soldier in the "Home" 

Worn, wounded, scarred and old 
Did nurse again the broken strength 

The service hardships rolled. 
He yet had senses keen and quick 

To feel his country's need; 
Was oft in doubt, in sorrows thick. 

And oft his heart did bleed 
To see his country fronting fate 
And blank unconscious of her state. 

91 



With trembling hands and bulging eyes 

He read each day's report; 
Did thuniL3 his fist, did grind his teeth. 

And often fierce did snort- 
So unprepared, such long delays, 

The lack of all supplies, 
The vast indifference that betrays 

Seemed traitorous in his eyes. 
The greed of gold, the lust of power 
Seemed most the monsters that devour. 

The danger filled his sweeping eyes 

Did brood on heart and brain; 
Fear and her somber shadows fell 

On Britain's wide domain. 
He sometimes saw and felt the shame 

Of armies in retreat, 
And better still, he sometimes felt 

The virtue of defeat; 
It seemed his country's greatest need 
To bring the free and fighting breed. 

No wonder then in such a frame 

All life powers held debate! 
And often came the stormy night, 

Oft dreams that recreate; 
Oft, oft he felt the vast desire 

That youth again might aid, 
And out of this there came the dream 

That new his country made. 
He felt the shame, his muttered word 
His being into action stirred. 

Oh Britain, thou hast been the free 

And fought full many a fight 
For thine and other liberty 

On sea and plain and height! 
But now when for thy very life 

Thy passions should be white, 
Still at thine ease, unfit for strife. 

Torn by dividing blight. 
Lift up thine eyes! Behold the foe! 
If man to man how would it go? 

Now every German in the world 

Is on the fighting line; 
The Austrian binds up his loins. 

Drinks down the soldier's wine; 
Away the Bulgar throws his fears, 

92 



Swift rushes to the fight; 
The courage of this later Turk 

Redeems him in our sight. 
Division now from them has fled 
And Union leads them straight ahead. 

The French are rolling back the strength 

As mountains roll the tide; 
The Romans like the Romans old 

Are standing up in pride; 
The baited Serbians louder shout 

And fight until they fall; 
The Russian now is turned about 

And backed against the wall; 
They all are allies for the fight 
That feeds the soldier passions white. 

But, Britain, Britain, where art thou? 

The world doth look at thee; 
All nations of the planet now, 

Pause, look, astonished see 
The Daughter of old Liberty 

That never did betray 
In freedom's sacred cause is cold 

And laggard in the fray- 
Great Liberty is calling: "Come!" 
And art thou yet still deaf and dumb? 

The Soul of Britain like a Queen 

That rides the boundless sea. 
High scepters o'er the wide terrene 

Young nations strong and free- 
She weeps, she weeps, she cries, she cries 

For her old sons and sires. 
The ancient spirit to arise 

With freedom's sacred fires. 
Against the wall, in bleeding need 
She calls and calls the ancient breed. 

A few state virtues most supreme 

Swift hastened to the fray. 
Heroic virtue, granite hate 

Have battled night and day. 
The man and soldier battled fierce; 

Each conquered, each did die; 
But here are none to take his place. 

There others swiftly fly. 
Here Britain calls, looks up for men 
But none to greet her cry and ken. 

93 



Yet here are multitudes of men 

That wander round and round; 
Young strength in whom the larger soul 

Has never yet been found. 
Large hosts of men just in their prime 

Unto the strife are dead, 
And Britian bleeding in her need 

As slie has never bled, 
And calling, thinking that the free 
Will answer look and prayer and plea. 

The dog fights of the nation's life 

Are passed, and now is come 
The one great fight that well might smite 

The nation blind and dumb . 
We now must fight for Liberty 

Or for the tyrants fight. 
Be Britain's free men as of yore 

O slaves of Teuton might. 
And Britain now can scarcely find 
The seeing eye or thinking mind- 

And some are slow and some are cold, 

Some sitting at their ease. 
And some in soul are far away. 

Some struck by strange disease; 
And some are rich and some are fat, 

Some drink and drunk with wine, 
And some are blind and some afraid; 

Some traitors by design; 
Some high and low go on the strike 
And some to neutral nations hike. 

And some by selfishness can bleed 

Their country in this hour. 
And some by blind ambitious greed 

Would barter her for power; 
And some in this tremendous time 

Can dance the flowery way, 
And some as if she were a crime 

Can strip her bare and flay; 
Some see what Fate writes on the gate 
And still can stand and watch and wait. 

One sings: "I did not raise my boy 

To be a soldier man. 
I raised him up to be a joy 

And glory of the clan." 
Oh let me hear: "Had I a boy 

. 94 



That now disdained the fight 
I would take him out and shoot him 

Like a howling dog at night." 
That is the song we need to hear 
Or else descend from off the sphere. 

Ye masses! Will ye dare to turn 

From Life's great Queen divine? 
Earth's highest hopes still dare to spurn. 

This liberty resign? . 

By all the gods enthroned above, 

By devils penned below, 
I'll march again as in my prime 

To front my country's foe. 
I feel the spirit in me burn 
And to the ranks again will turn. 

And I will call the gray and old 

Though years have hit them hard; 
The souls that faced the bayonets cold . 

The rear can surely guard. 
Now Liberty, both loud and clear 

Send blasts of living sound! 
Pour it like thunder round the sphere 

And to it soon will bound 
The old rear guard in body- broke, 
But spirit stronger than the oak! ^ 

Call all the old men of the state, ' 

The broken, blind and ' lame. 
The three score years and ten that weight, 

Last ember, spark anti flame! 
They fought in youth, they fought in prime 

To make Great Britain's fame 
And they again would rather die 

Than live and wear .the shame 
That sees their native country fight 
And not rush up with passions white. 

"All Britain's sires all round the globe. 

Hark, hark! Now pause and hark! 
Great Britain's sires, Oh let the probe 

Go through ye to the mark! 
Against the wall, now for her life 

Thy country final fights; 
She's up against it, in the strife 

The foe climb up the heights- 
Thy country calls the old 'Rear Guard!' 
Com-e home! Come home! Let naught retard!" 

95 



All round the world they heard the sound. 

Then Instant with a sweep 
And with an elemental bound 

Unto their arms they leap. 
Old fowling pieces, older swords. 

And oddest weapons strange 
For dateless rifles once adored 

The arts and crafts exchange. 
Upon the flood, before the tide 
Propitious winds to England ride. 

The Rear Guard with official skill 

Soon formed them into line; 
Strange ranks and arms and regiments 

Were marshaled in his eyne. 
The odd accoutrements and old 

Their nervous fingers held; 
Each face, intense and keen and pinched. 

Their bosoms heaved and swelled, 
Great Britain's oldest, rearest guard 
To save the country pressed so hard. 

The Rear Guard mounted, viewed the line; 

He viewed the ranks and smiled; 
The soldier never is deceived, 

Too real to be beguiled. 
He saw the wrecks and rags and scraps 

Life's war had almost slain, 
The blown out magazines of life 

In soldier form and train; 
j^s to the truth he was beguiled 
He could not dream but smiled and smiled. 

He then beheld the young recruits. 

Resources, fire and lore. 
Just aching, aching for the strife 

And dreaming of old war; 
All force and fire, all flare and flash. 

With passions that unseal 
The dreaming of a fierce delight 

Mid shot and shell and steel. 
He saw the young recruits so fair 
And then the rear guards, marching there. 

He saw recruits trained, marched and drilled, 

Tough hardened for the fight; 
With white steel strength their frames were bound, 

Their spirits fed more white. 
Full matched to all machines and powers, 

96 



Upon Life's crested hill, 
The raw recruits were granite towers 

That high explosives fill. 
He saw and measured their domain 
Then eyed the Rear Guard's lingering train. 

He saw the veterans of the fight 

In action's fiercest hour, 
In demon battles 'gainst the might 

Of monsters that devour; 
With elemental energies 

And engineries and lore. 
In elemental struggles locked 

That earth and heav'n tore; 
Then saw the worn out, wasted breed 
Beside the nation's chosen seed. 

He saw the victors from the wars 

Full clad in glory bright; 
Great Liberty was leading them 

And feeding life and light. 
Tall, noble, hard, straight, wise and strong. 

Prepared again to fight. 
And in the march he heard the song 

Of full victorious "Right." 
And then the feeble guards of age 
Did after them his eyes engage. 

He viewed again; there was his friends, 

The veterans worn and old, 
All that was in them leaped to life 

But age is slow and cold. 
Their march and dream and victory 

Was just a vain pretense. 
The valor that did death defy 

In struggles most immense 
They left it on the fields and years 
When up they fought and crowned the spheres. 

Here was a band of clergymen, 

Old, bent and soft and gray, 
Dissenters and establishment 

United for the fray. 
Such feebleness and gentleness 

Might grace a country town 
But coming up to join the war — 

A breath would knock them down; 
But not a spark the Guard could spurn 
That on his country's altars burn. 

97 



These artists and musicians seef 

They could not stop a dog. 
A single day of march would lay 

Their strength out like a log. 
These poets and romantic scribes 

Are only in the way- 
Mere paper fighters! Could they stand 

Where razor bayonets play? 
But all who would for Britain die 
The Rear Guard held with sacred eye. 

See these mechanics that from toil 

Had long retired to rest; 
These former delvers in the soil 

Nursed on old nature's breast, 
From sitting in the sunlight soft, 

Slow dozing out their life, 
They have come up to meet the strength 

Of this titanic strife. 
It was absurd. But who could dare 
Reject the altar offering there? 

Here doctors, lawyers, teachers old 

Did leave their books and fees; 
Gray merchants, bankers, builders gray 

Forgot age and disease. 
The old officials of the state. 

White scientists of lore 
And every worn out worthiness 

Came up to join the war; 
But none who for their country sigh 
The old Rear Guard could dare deny. 

Here come old sailors from the shores 

From which they sailed so free; 
Rough, weather beat and swaggering wide. 

True sons of the old sea. 
Our quickened pulses us deceive; 

'Tis only memory; 
They once M^ere strongest of the strong 

But strength with age doth flee. 
The old Rear Guard could not reject 
These shadows of the once elect. 

Here comes a line of pensioners. 
Aged soldiers from the "Home," 

Slow hobbling up with all their years 
To front the strength of Rome. 

Torn, broken, cripple, scored and scarred, 

98 



And minus leg or arm, 
Their eighty years were coming up 

To Britain save from harm. 
All, all of this immortal breed 
The Guard made officers to lead 

See yonder! By heaven! I believe 

Beneath that strauge attire 
Some women would the eye deceive 

And fighting men inspire. 
'Tis even so! These spirits sing 

Their country's noblest line: 
♦'Who cannot fight for Liberty 

Is never son of mine." 
The Rear Guard shouted: ''Make a place 
For this new breed. I like the race." 

As thus he saw, his gathered guards 

Stood plain before his sight; 
Their glory dwindled down and down 

As noonday down to night. 
Oh what a strange and motley rank 

Of all the rags of life! 
It was a soldier comedy, 

A farce to soldier strife. 
E'en Life herself did smile to see 
These guards against the strifes that be. 

How could he lead, how could he these 

March out before the world? 
Full front the thronging multitudes? 

The thrones and stations pearled? 
How could he march to London town 

And up to parliament, 
When most of them should be in bed, 

And to the "Homes" be sent? 
It madness seemed to lead the line 
On whom old Death had set his sign. 

All up the way to London town 

He saw the masses wait, 
Jest, laughter, scorn and ribaldry 

At every village gate. 
Sarcasm, mockery, hootings flung 

And sworded word and frown. 
Denial, wrath, perhaps a curse 

From thrones and high renown; 
All this he saw and could he lead 
This old Rear Guard to Britain's need? 

99 



Then coming up to parliament 

Before the nation's eyes 
The Commons, Lords and King and all 

Would hiss, spit and despise. 
Great officers of war in shame 

Would sweep them from the street; 
The nation in wild mockery 

Would trample 'neath the feet. 
His guards so scattered, slain and torn 
The ages would hold up in scorn. 

He viewed them and his heart did sink. 

An insane dream possessed: 
It is a dangerous thing to think 

Right through life's painted vest. 
But on these guards there was no paint. 

Naught, naught was there to mask 
But naked eye and naked truth 

That strangest questions ask. 
In all that see, in all that think 
The heart and hope must often sink. 

Then, an infinite almighty shame 

Did strike him down to earth. 
A vaster and more mighty pride 

Came up in turn to birth. 
He flung defiance to the world. 

Stood up in granite might, 
For then another vision streamed 

Like sunrise on his sight. 
A vision that the world did shame 
And set his spirit fierce aflame. 

Upon those frames that mocked the eye, 

Upon their faces lean. 
Upon those crippled, limping lines 

Was glory rarely seen. 
The splendors from the noonday pass; 

The victors were in shame; 
And en these guards a vision rose 

To crown the crests of fame- 
And he could front the universe 
If it were all one howling curse. 

Upon each countenance did shine 

The high heroic soul. 
The spirit man deems most divine, 

That time and life can pole. 
There was the pure self-sacrifice 

100 



That did the self disown. 
There was the vitar keen desire 

The world has never known 
And in their eyes there was the light 
That blinds the soldier's battle sight. 

There was the age that in its youth 

Had been as fierce as fire, 
The outworn strength that in its prime 

High heaven did desire. 
There was the glory of that grace 

That soldiers only wear, 
And when for Liberty they fight 

Shines infinitely fair; 
And who could scorn when he could trace 
The glory of life's noblest race. 

This was the remnant of that line 

That set the wbole world free, 
That cradled freedom for the globe 

And sent her o'er the sea. 
They longed and longed for youth again 

And on their age did weep. 
But with their all to its last dram 

Did up and forward leap. 
Far brighter than the morning sun 
Life's glory on his guards did run. 

Exalted to the height of pride 

He seemed to fill the arch 
With a real soldier's order flung: 

"To London, forward march!" 
The Rear Guards gathered up their strength 

And followed guard and guide, 
And England's masses to the sight 

Came up from far and wide; 
They hastened to the way of life, 
Forgot their, country in its strife- 

From Portsmouth unto London town 

The highway soon was jammed; 
Soon every spot where eye could see 

Was more than overcrammed. 
The curious, gay, sight seeing throng 

Without one living thought 
Beyond the moment's merriment 

Were by the strangeness brought. 
They crowded up, a surging mass 
The way the Rear Guards were to pass. 

101 



Then as the soldier old had seen, 

There was a world of scorn. 
Though in some few a saving dream 

Was unto honor born. 
The mass was wild and drunk with glee; 

Bach did with other vie 
In mocking zest and biting jest 

That loud on them they cry. 
They were the butt^ the bait and bay 
Of all the mass on that high way. 

Full many a word sharp as a sword 

And pointed as a spear 
Went to the heart of each old guard 

That ne'er had known fear. 
And many a look and many an act 

And worse things on them flung, 
Not for their own but Britain's sake 

Their beings stung and stung; 
But they had come for Britain's need 
And for themselves did lightly heed. 

When up they came to London town 

There was a mighty shout, 
A most tremendous shout of scorn, 

That younger men might rout. 
But them it fed a higher strength. 

Fed passion like their prime 
And on they marched before the throng 

As virtue fronting crime; 
Scorning, mocking, swelling, smiting 
But their spirits little biting- 

The pomp, position, power and pride 

Of London let a shout 
That shook the island to its ends 

And circled them about. 
Fierce cannonades of ribaldry, 

All magazines of wit. 
Laughter and puns like rapid guns 

Did turn on them and hit. 
In jests that set the streets in roars 
Like sunny breakers on the shores. 

When near they drew to parliament 

A silence seemed to fall 
A virtuous something in the air 

The mockery did appal. 
The atmosphere and nobler sense, 

102 



Perhaps the soul within 
Did smite with questions most immense 

The rabble, roar and din; 
And silence fell around the line 
As they drew near the honored shrine. 

They marched right up and then re-formed 

Into a solid mass. 
The remnant of old English sires, 

The class of every class. 
"With hardly strength enough to stand 

But desperate and intense 
And with old England's ancient grace 

Upon each countenance 
They waited. Would Britain them accept 
Or would she their old age reject? 

Look yonder! The Commons, Lords and King 

Are coming barehead down; 
There's pleasure on each countenance 

As glory on renown. 
There's lightning in each gazing eye 

That doth the guards behold. 
There's something in the atmosphere 

Of England true and old- 
Hark! Hark! Did ye not hear the word? 
The very dead might well be stirred. 

"All honor to ye, nobler souls. 

Who feel your country's need! 
Ye gave your youth to make her great, 

Your age for her can bleed. 
United, Commons, Lords and King 

For service ye accept, 
And we would seek with you a place 

For ye are life's elect 
Who bring unto Great Britain's shrine 

The greatest of her gifts divine." 

Just then stood fo^th a mighty Soul, 

Tall, noble, great and wise, 
A spirit that the world could pole, 

That could adorn the skies. 
The great soul of the English race. 

Majestic, strong, sublime, 
Cast off the darkness from her face 

And stood up pure and prime. 
All greeted her. Applause did break 
That both the heav'ns and earth did shake. 

103 



That was a soul, a noble soul 

That soon did silence call; 
True spirit glory from the height 

Did on the human fall. 
To look at her the mortal rose; 

To feel her was like wine; 
Thus standing near and fronting her 

Would make men grow divine. 
And in the silence fell the word 
That Britons ne'er before had heard. 

"I am the Soul of this great State- 

I lived with but one hope, 
To build a people wise and free 

And lead them up the slope. 
And I conceived and bore and brought 

And bred divine a race 
With whom I dared to front the world 

And all dishonor face. 
The type was high, rich, strong and free. 
The kindred of the boundless sea." 

"They were the men I loved to see. 

With whom I lived and wrought, 
Forever pledged to Liberty 

And never sold nor bought. 
They were the breed the world doth need, 

And I can see your sires 
Upon mine eyes like visions rise 

Such as the hour requires. 
Earth elements, old nature's own, 
On them I built my hopes and throne." 

"Look at your sires! Behold the breed! 

The like is now no more. 
The old ancestral soul has gone 

To some far distant shore. 
For to your kind ye are not kin, 

You now old Nature shelves- 
Who cannot fight for human right 

Fight never for themselves. 
Of all this teeming boundless throng 
None but these guards to them belong." 

"I once did lead the English race; 

My words were like a fire; 
Oft, oft with me was instant death 

But I was life's desire. 
I have no people left today 

104 



But these Rear Guards so nigh 
Oh Island Dear! P'arewell, farewell! 

I go v/ith them to die. 
And Nature great we leave with thee 
The memory of the race once free." 

Thus said, she paused. In that suspense 

The masses held their breath. 
"Perhaps one more will join these ranks 

And go with us to death. 
There is no victory on our eyes, 

We go unto our end; 
Here Liberty and life must part 

And she is still our friend. 
The foe is strong- We scarce can try; 
But with great Liberty can die." 

Then like a gun of monstrous bore 

That breaks the Sabbath chime, 
Like mighty thunder that has tore 

The azure vaulted clime. 
Like to a resurrection sound. 

That startles all the world. 
Imparting friends a forward bound 

And backward foe has hurled, 
She shouted shaking heaven's arch: 
•'Attention! Right about face! March!" 

As lightnings from electric clouds 

Doth instant flash and leap, 
As tempests from the granite north 

Come forth with sudden sweep. 
As earthquake and volcanoes break 

The chains upon their breast, 
And ocean sends a mighty tide 

Of sheer resistless crest. 
So suddenly the plumbless deep 
Of Britain's nobler soul did leap. 

Resistless tide and mighty wind 

Broke every anchor chain, 
Did lift each up, bore all afar, 

Fed every heart and brain. 
Floods, floods of passion fierce and white 

And powers and grace divine, 
Burst into them and changes wrought 

Like old enchanting wine; 
Another Britain did arise. 
The breed that all the world doth prize. 

105 



That was a resurrection hour 

To glory and to grace. 
The spirit rose in virtuous dower. 

Life did the birth embrace. 
Upon each face a soul did shine, 

Bach brow was briglit with flame, 
The glowing, glowing, glowing heart 

Did through the flesh proclaim. 
The free born soul and race was there. 
In granite power and beauty fair. 

Broke one wide Europe shaking shout, 

"Stay! Stay! Leave not our shore! 
Forgive our sordid selfishness. 

We were insane before! 
We v/ere not sons of our old sires. 

Not hopes for Liberty, 
Mere remnant rags to these old guards. 

Most, most unworthy thee! 
But stay. Oh stay. Forgive! Forgive! 
Still teach us how to rise and live-" 

Then each in pure self-sacrifice 

Up on the altar came. 
The fire that did from heav'n descend 

Did up to heaven flame. 
All passions, powers and hopes supreme 

Around that soul did leap. 
Life's first and last and fierce delight 

Was on her course to sweep. 
The nation by her spirit found 
Did circle her around and round. 

Then like a high divinity 

The nation to her rose; 
Each saw the soul's affinity. 

Each kindled higher glows. 
All souls were so divinely moved 

Each silent was and wept; 
Peace, sorrow, joy and all in tears 

A moment on each crept. 
Tears of our joy, tears on our wrong 
Doth make us great and wise and strong- 
Then was a victor's victor shout 

That shook the rounded sphere. 
The distant foe did grit his teeth, 

First touched by doubt and fear. 
The shout of free men for their Queen, 

106 



still shouting like the free, 
To live and die for Liberty 

ShoDk mountain, plain and sea. 
All mothers, daughters, sons, sires 
Marched with the old ancestral fires. 

Up, up they came to the last man 

Singing the song of life: 
''Great Liberty the world must van 

Or perish in the strife." 
Off, off they marched and on the field 

Paid out the awful toll 
The world now and again must pay 

While Liberty shall pole. 
Up, up they came! Glad, glad to give 
The price by which the futures live! 

Thus went the dream in that true soul 

Upon his country's shame- 
He saw her torn, divided, shorn 

Beneath great honor's blame. 
That dream and train in heart and brain 

Cast over him a power 
That made a day so cold and gray 

A rich immortal hour; 
And to his country's bleeding need 
He came a true immortal breed. 

The passion and its height and sweep 

That robed him like a flame, 
Those marches up the golden streets 

And on the crest of fame. 
That courtal fellowship sublime 

With his brave comrades old 
And His country's resurrection grand 

Was more than he could hold, 
And his body fell like mortal 
And his spirit passed the portal 

As great vict'ry on him rolled. 

Then clad in soldier glory fine. 

His medals on his breast. 
With snatches of his storied prime. 

For his last marches dressed, 
We gathered round and read the rite 

Par let the banners stream. 
And bore him in the morning dawn 

Down where the flowers teem 
And flashing bright all saw the light 

And glory of his dream. 

107 



Then Poetry diviner sung 

The glory of the spheres; 

The Rear Guard to the years; 
The Artist on his canvas flung- 
Then Music with victorious sound 

Did him forever own; 
And Sculpture soon her subject found 

Embalming him in stone; 
And England sighing dropped some tears 
And in her memory high reveres. 



BRITAIN. 

A Song of Truth to a Song of Hate. 

'Tls a destined time. 'Tis the hour of fate 
For the Gods of war close the long debate. 
Now a Spirit wild mid the lightning flies 
And in madness shrieks with insanest cries. 
Now the globe's great heart is w^ith passion filled 
And the breasts of man are with tension thrilled. 
Now the clarions clear and the trumpets loud 
Doth the summons fling to the arming crowd. 
The soldiers and navies and nations shout 
Planes and autos fly and the banners flout, 
And in us there springs with a cosmic bound 
An old, new, vital and thunderous sound: 
"My Country!" 

The soul that in soul is so oft asleep. 
Too impassioned full for the flesh to keep, 
The national soul that cur fathers great 
In us born and bred on the fields of fate. 
The rich memories high of the valient fight 
When they fought vast odds for their human right, 
And the mighty oath and eternal curse 
They swore to the world and the universe 
When they pledged themselves to their island Queen 
To enthrone her high on the whole terrene. 
That soul in our soul that is seldom found 
Into action leaps with the quick'ning sound: 
"Britain, Free Britain!" 

We have one pure love; we have known no hate, 
To ourselves been true and the Queen of state. 
Though we selfish are, stained and flawed and vain 
And have often fell from our ideal plain, 

108 



We appeal to time and the deeds of years, 
To the great and wise, peasant, craftsman, peers. 
To all patriots strong, to religion pure. 
Faith, honor and truth and the thrones secure. 
To the heavens above and the earth and sea. 
To all royal born and all spirits free. 
Unto you we call, unto you appeal! 
Are we curse or hope? Now disown or seal! 
There is silence vast. We await the sound. 
Now the great Soul breaks and doth pour around: 
"Britain, Free Britain!" 

All around the earth are our royal sons 
And our royalest life in its fulness runs; 
All the modern world we have mothered free 
As strong as the earth and the boundless sea; 
These United States in their flesh and bones 
In her silence feels what she dare disowns. 
Now the Lion's whelps with a bound and roar 
Leap across the sea, guard the mother's doer! 
From Canadians strong and Australians young 
Now are armies born and around us flung. 
From off Indian mounts and from Afric heights 
An unkindred kin with their kin unites. 
Hark again. Oh hark! 'Tis a victor's sound 
That rolls o'er the sea and doth gird us round: 
"Britain, Free Britain!" 

We behold the world now anew arise 
And a new God reigns on the azure skies. 
As the empire stars are eclipsed and shine 
We will take our place or our powers resign. 
We will take our fate as the Gods decide; 
If the Gods play just we will just abide; 
But by Gods above and by fiends below 
We will front the world as a single foe 
Ere the isle goes down by a soldier state 
That doth feed its soul on a single hate. 
We defy the world with its iron feet 
To this freedom tread that doth in us beat! 
Oh arise! Arise! A tremendous sound 
Calls the nation forth. Will she still be found, 
"Britain, Free Britain." 

When our race is run and our histories close. 
When the state goes down to its long repose. 
It will be a field, it will be a strife 
As wide as the world and as vast as life, 

109 



And the latest man, woman, daughter, son 
In that finish fight will be joined as one. 
More triumphant then than triumphant now. 
With the free man's soul and his brandless brow, 
All, encircling round our forever Queen 
Will defy the hosts of the vast terrene; 
And when down we go every soul will go 
As our fathers went when they faced the toe. 
We'll die with a song and the deathless sound 
To the watching worlds that are list'ning round: 
"Britian, Free Britian." 



BROCK 

An Example 

When she, the mother of the modern world. 
Was fighting with her back against the wall, 
When Europe with an earthquake shock was hurled 
And ancient thrones seemed tottering to their fall. 
This Canada did then a soldier call 
And found in thee the spirit she did need. 
The odds were great, the chances lean and small. 
But 'tis the cause that doth the soldier feed. 
Thou stoodest forth; the flag unfurled to all; 
Drew full the sword; a bugle blast unfreed 
That round thee soldiers drew as but few soldiers lead. 

With one bold stroke of dazzling enterprise 
Detroit fell; then thou didst quick return 
To guard the shores where swift Niagara flies. 
Pride, fear and shame within thy soul did burn 
To see the foes the armistice so spurn. 
As they entrenched and armed them for the fight 
Thou wert restrained, though wisdom did discern 
A Samson's need but Samson shorn of might. 
Peace, peace the craven, coward-hearted yearn. 
But thou didst scorn the peace that was in sight 
And heard and read the fire of that October night. 

With galloping pace thou and thy steed did forge 
Through night and .storm; along Niagara's bank 
Blind plunging on, on to the height and gorge. 
The batteries roared. Invading bands did prank 
The farther shore to cross. Thy spirit drank 
Her element. 'Twis life to life. Commands 
And soldiers flew and sharp artillery sank 
The freighted transports. Up where the raden stands 

110 



Thou mountest quick for none could there outflank, 
Where nature gave her powers into thy hands 
To roll destruction down upon all hostile bands. 

Thou didst survey the field. Thy batteries famed 
So unassailable did seem, thy strength was sent 
Below to block the landings. Thy gunners armed 
To short and thou didst warning cry: "Sergeant, 
Your time and distance you misjudge. Prevent 
The waste. Try longer fuse." The words were drowned 
In musketry and victor shouts that rent 
Thy rear. Though palsied that a flank was found 
Thy own hand spiked the gun, ere swift descent 
Did chase thee down; and who can feel the wound 
•More deadlier than death defeat upon the bound? 

Defeat! Defeat! Cruel, cruel, Oh cruel defeat! 
To thus plunge down, down driven from the strife! 
While dragon greeds did on thy spirit eat. 
Consuming swift the passions red and rife. 
But oft defeat is resurrection life; 
Another man of virtuous strength and will 
Grasps up the sword and with a lightning knife 
Defiance flings on Life's embattled hill. 
So was it then. Defeat was like a wife 
Of rugged form, but whose divinest skill 
Brought forth the fighting man no chance of war can kill. 

The enemy were planted on the height 
In numbers, veterans, arms, supplies and place; 
But nought can daunt the heroes of the fight 
And nought can hurt a soldier like disgrace. 
Up, up that steep against Fate's frowning face! 
Up, up that steep that belches forth its ire! 
Up, up that steep 'gainst death at every pace 
Thou mountest up, unvanquished in desire! 
Still up the steep, shielding thy soldier race. 
And feeding them with passions that inspire, 
Forgetful of thyself exposed to ruthless fire. 

Thou hadst climbed up to aimost front the foe. 
Thy uniform, sword, prominence and command 
Made thee a mark. Thou on thy followers throw: 
"Hold fast your fire a moment more; then stand. 
Discharge, and rush with bayonets on the band." 
Ere died the words a sharpened shot rang out 
And with a flash upon thy presence grand 
It struck. Thou saidst to those that closed about: 

111 



"Heed not my fall! On, on for this fair land! 
Advance to victory!" But blasts of fire did rout 
The line without the lead that dared the odds to bout. 

But there are worlds within the world of man, 
And life is oft the opposite it seems. 
A vict'ry and a victor's larger plan 
Oft with a curse and vast destruction teems. 
Out of defeat, cut of her torturing dreams 
Another man, another virtue springs 
And moulds the soul to far diviner schemes. 
The blinded world that blind forever swings 
Is full of contradiction and extremes; 
That which we wish is always that which stings. 
That which we most lament that which the sweetest sings. 

For now upon the summit of thy prime 
And now upon the crest of vict'ry great, 
Fixed in a form and passion most sublime 
Thou art an immortality of state. 
Now thou are throned and evermore canst mate 
The hierarchial nobles of mankind-, 
For on that height Life struck with joy elate 
An image high as man could wish to find. 
There all men pause and silent contemplate. 
Then sudden cry beneath the spells that bind: 
"This was a royal man, a man high heaven designed." 



THE SWORD OF THE FREE 

Oh never a man in his passion 

But a soldier within him arose! 
And clad in man's noblest fashion 

His hand round the sword did enclose. 
Was a man ever born who could hold in his scorn 
The soldier and sword that each other adorn? 

The sword is more ancient and olden 
Than palaces, empires and -dreams; 
Down through all the past we beholden 
It flashes with splendors and gleams. 
As the meteor bright in the hand of the night 
So flashes the sword on the spirit's delight. 

The weapon has virtue and glory; 
Is famous and noble in deed; 

112 



Is embalmed in immortalist story 
By men of earth's noblest breed. 
Both the sword and the man by an ideal plan 
For each other were made when the world began. 

More polished and brighter than morning. 

It is keen as a razor's edge; 
And as strong as the steel bar forming 
Its back and its concave wedge. 
From her heart and her spine brought old nature divine 
To the anvil the stuff that she tempered most fine. 

As swift as a bolt when it flashes, 
And as sure as an eagle's eye, 
And as deep as a patriot's gashes 
Where old traitors and tyrants die. 
So thy strokes and thy might in the midst of the fight 
"When the soul and the sword drink their passions' delight. 

Though white as the worker can v/hiten, 

Or golden as mirrors the 3un, 
Thou art crimson as ever can dighten 
The crimson all free spirits run. 
'Tis thy joy and thy grief to baptize in the dyes 
Of the tyrant's red heart when wide open it flies. 

Oh hand! Did a hand ever holden 

A symbol as great as the sword? 
My passions thy handle enfolden 
As a member once severed restored. 
Oh clasp her and hold her! More tighter and fold her 
With large muscled strength growing bolder and bolder! 

Oh arm! Is there ought for thy swinging 

So worth as the sword of the free? 
Can scepters or wands that are winging 
Cast spells of enchantment on thee? 
There is naught in the earth from the grave to the birth 
Like the sword of the free and their battles of worth. 

Once more, Oh my sword, I will trumpet 

The oath unto heaven and earth, 
The oath the oppressors discomfit 
And hastens free ages to birth: 
"Through all time and all space, for each down-trodden race 
On the fiercest front line I will fight in my place." 

113 



"For thee and thy cause the divinest 

I am more than a bartered slave; 
Earth kingdoms and all earth enshrinest 
Without thee would be but a grave. 
Give th^ field and the foes! Give the sword and its blows! 
Give me life, give me death and a victor's repose?" 

"As standing on time's golden portal, 

For ages, the ages unborn. 
For the cause and the world's most immortal, 
Once again is allegiance sworn: 
To the cause, to the cause, to the cause of the free 
I must pledge soul and sword for eternity!" 



FREE BRITAIN, FREE FOREVER 

When Life and Time did first create 

The modern world and nations 
An island Queen they chose to nurse 

The best of their creations. 
Great Liberty was then conceived 

And born among the masses; 
There nursed and fed and torn and bled 

Through forests, wild and passes. 

Straight up she grew a soul divine 

And fed the island races. 
The soul in soul oft leaping forth. 

Allegiance and embraces. 
Through these chaotic savage times 

She sowed immortal stories. 
Her body-guard with deeds sublime 

Did crown her brow with glories. 

In many a fierce and bloody fray 

She led the stalwart masses. 
Taught, often taught, no Britons aie 

The slaves of tilted classes. 
The people oft in battle rose 

And on the thrones did trample; 
A thrcneless throne and kingless king 

The past holds up as sample. 

They were the first to wage the wars 

That are the people's glory. 
Great Freedom's struggles Life embalms 

114 



In most immortal story. 
In every war for liberty 

They are like mountain bases, 
They bear the shock and hurl the floods 

To their abysmal places. 

On every shore across the sea 

The life of life she planted; 
Young nations cradled strong and free, 

With Liberty enchanted. 
Great Britain's life with freedom rife 

Through all the world is sweeping. 
The colonies with passion white 

Are toward the mother leapirg. 

This Britain nursed the modern worl/ 

But Liberty nursed Britain; 
On every soul unto her boru 

The royal word was written. 
To every one was fed the milk 

That tyrant hatred nurses 
And every one was fed the meat 

That fronts the tyrant's curses. 

Then when a hell begotten force 

With war dogs fierce attended 
Looked toward her, bellowed, broke the leash, 

Leaped, raved and foaming rended. 
What wonder that the free born race 

With sweeping rush assembled 
And heaven and earth in lightning storms 

In fear and horror trembled? 

What wonder that a mighty shout 

Shook every quaking nation: 
"To arms, to arms! To hell. Oh hurl 

Hell's monstrous miscreation ! 
March to the war that slays all war! 

Now double strife infernal! 
Destroy the old and endless curse 

And bring the peace supernal!" 

And if free Britain e'er shall change 

To heart and hand of iron. 
Another free born bid arise! 

Let deadly foes environ! 
But may my country never change! 

From Liberty nought sever! 
But as she was and is still be, 

Free Britain, free forever! 

115 



ATROCITIES 

Atrocities! Abhorred atrocities! 
Outrageous violation of all law! 
New cannibals and new ferocities 
The human race doth paralyze with awe! 
The savage breeds that nature once did draw 
Into the deep with infinitest shame 
Rise up again, but ruder and more raw. 
The passions old that fires infernal flame 
Rush o'er the earth and glut their hungry maw, 
In deeds so fierce that human nature's fame 
And civilization's grace seems skin deep on the frame. 

Why mention these gigantic crimes of war 
As if all war did saneness not expel! 
And demoned man demented with the gore 
Not driven on by an infernal spell 
To murd'rous hate and mad destructions fell! 
War and her deeds are Reason's worst monstrosities! 
Her time on earth makes life an unlocked hell! 
Each hour of stay feeds blind and fierce ferocities 
That neither God nor man can hope to quell. 
Against high heav'n, what blasphemous philosophies! 
Against all human kind what infinite atrocities! 

But being war, why mention these profanities? 
Some of these deeds that thou dost howl and hiss 
As savages and brute insane insanities 
And seek mankind to hurl to the abyss — 
What is this noise but signs that thou dost miss 
The rank and class all sterner soldiers know 
And scorn to whine in deadly strifes like this ! 
War is annihilation of the foe. 
"Annihilate by any means ye wis" 
Has been the law old nature doth bestow 
And he is her best born who lays the greatest low. 

Inventions that annihilations sow 
Let genius call unto their aid to fight! 
Old Nature court! She has and will bestow 
The instant and omnipotent might 
That down the foe shall sudden final smite- 
These Zeppelins, U-boats, gases, liquid fires — 
Oh cease this cry of women in their fright 
And meet them with new engineries and ires! 
Be like the breed of soldiers glowing white 
And down Oh go, or out of thy desires 
Another genius bring such as the need requires! 

116 



If it be war let war be elemental! 
Strike, strike for the foe's complete annihilation! 
Be lightning-like, remorseless, transcendental! 
An execution, like to this stern creation. 
An avalanche send to its destination! 
Wrest thou infernal sorcery from science! 
Move heav'n and earth and sea in ministration! 
Full open hell and bring up her appliance 
And give or take nature's extermination! 
Unto the old traditions hurl defiance 
And to the new war gods pledge thou a bold alliance! 

But place the bounds which rare old soldier breeds 
Placed on the soul what time their passions white 
Full lost themselves in elemental deeds 
Upon the front and fiercest line of fight. 
But could not find in their resistless might 
The weakling's thought, the coward's deed, the base 
Revenge and insolence of drunken power, 
But 'gainst it all a something felt disgrace 
And 'gainst the shame rose up in godlike height, 
Rose up in rage and spit into the face 
Of all the coward breeds and deeds that man debase. 

War is the full incarnate life of hell. 
The dispossession of humanity 
Of reason and all moral sense, a spell 
That binds the world in infinite inanity; 
But there are crimes within the black profanity 
All must forgive and sometimes even praise 
And there are crimes of such insanity 
That all the globe curse to the endless days. 
Some of these deeds this "culture and urbanity" 
Descend to do before the tribes that gaze, 
Aghasi ;,nd horror-struck at their desavaged ways. 

To shoot down boys and cut off both their hands 
For being true unto their native state. 
To slay the sex for whom all manhood stands 
And oft on them their lusts to satiate. 
To crucify and nail up in their hate 
Their soldier foes unto the walls and doors, 
To gouge out eyes and butcher hooks to weight 
With living men and wiLh infernal lores 
To do the deeds men tremble to relate — 
Oh Life and Strife, man scarce believes the scores, 
The insane, blinded hate drunk with the wine of wars! 

Is this so unbelievable? Behold 
Yon crowning act of state insanity! 

117 



A piece of work no drunken fiend has told, 
That stamps them with an infinite profanity 
And seals them with inhuman inhumanity! 
•A piece of work that did the globe astound, 
That for a time did paralyze all sanity 
And held the race aghast and pale and bound; 
A moment more and rational humanity 
Their nobler selves and their resources found 
And thundered forth a curse of full earthquaking sound. 

Oh how could men themselves congratulate 
In plunging down into the salty deep 
A thousand plain civilians! Oh how could hate 
Find in her heart the passions that could leap 
And on such deeds a jubilee so keep! 
How could great souls their higher glory doff 
And with the baser instincts in them sweep 
To sink such down below the ocean's trough, 
And on their shame and on the dead we weep 
To justify, to honor and to scoff 
The deep, deep, deep damnation of their vile taking off! 

My Country! Eternal living Fate 
The judgment writes on all such rankest deeds. 
When thee and thine with actions such can mate, 
Tlien thou wilt find from thine own marts and meads 
The breed divine that every nation needs; 
And thou wilt hear and thou wilt feel a curse 
That every high and cosmic spirit feeds 
And wrapped around and tangled, worse and worse 
Than ever fear within the guilty breeds 
Thou shalt descend the steep brinked universe 
Beneath the righteous wrath all righteous souls unpurse. 

Thou art a fame, a joy and hope and pride 
Of soldier breeds in every time and place. 
Upon thy soul and o'er thy strife doth ride 
The magnanimity that fears disgrace 
More than defeat or insult to the face. 
Thou lov'st in friend and doth admire in foe 
Nobility and virtues that embrace 
Soul honor as the noblest end we know. 
E'en in thy bloody battles we can trace 
The trampling of the savage fierce below. 
The emergence of the man, the best the earth can show. 

When thou canst think such mad dishonoring deeds, 
When human greatness runs so low in thee, 
When honor's soul cannot sustain the breeds, 

118 



And thee and thy great soldiers hence must be 
The scientific savages we see, 
Then let the right omnipotential hand 
Such guilty lift unto infinity 
And swifter than all heaven's swift command, 
And cursed as is a brute divinity 
Hurl as a hell contagion to the land 
Down, down the mighty gulf the whole supporting band- 

My Country, "with all thy faults I love thee still!" 
Though sense and selfishness and guilt I see 
And feel ashamed when on some heaven hill 
I look above and then look down on thee; 
But when I look on this humanity 
And see the souls that doth each nation ride, 
Behold the naked spirits they unfree. 
The types of men and man-ideals that guide, 
My blood doth burn; soul rises up in me; 
I hear great songs; the great globe I bestride; 
A free man of the free, in honor, strength and priae. 



DUNG 

Oh War, dread War! Dark, dark prolific curse! 
Survivor of the long eternal strife! 
The parent soul that doth forever nurse 
Black murd'rous hates against the heart of Life! 
Thou tramplest down, thou plungest deep thy knife 
Into the soul of every human hope. 
In spite of all time's changes rich and rife, 
In spite of man who struggled up the slope, 
In spite of all ideals sorrows wife 
Thou risest up, blaspheming heaven's cope 
And feedest all the race thy deadly deadly dope. 

Full drunk with wine of darkest inspiration 
The ancient beasts within these humans rise. 
Man is transformed, a cursed incantation 
Makes savages and brutes of monstrous size 
And by the spells infernal energize. 
Drove as by hell, insane or madly stung. 
With fierceness hot and fell ferocious cries 
All have themselves upon each other slung 
Till mangled dead in slaughter round them lies. 
Great Life and Hope and all unto them sprung 
Cry on the insane scene: "Dung! Dung! Just common dung!" 

119 



See these high forms, the high high forms of man, 
The God erect, the hopes that earth doth nurse, 
So rich endowed unto a cosmic plan 
And marched unto a cosmopolitan verse — 
Now see them brought before this blasting curse 
And cheaper than the breeds of savage tongue, 
And vainer than the shadows that immerse, 
And ruthless as old Nature ever flung, 
And quicker than the lightning can unpurse. 
And worthless as the beasts around them sprung. 
The royal race of man, dung, dung, just common dung! 

These spirits vast which hope brings unto birth, 
Potentials rich the world doth travailing nurse 
Out of the black and blind chaotic earth 
To victory and virtue o'er the curse. 
These solar souls that splendors bright disperse 
And wear the robes that heaven on them hung. 
They strike the eye, a god they rich unpurse. 
They tower and shine as from immortals sprung. 
And front the height of this vast universe; 
But war makes man the vilest ever sung. 
All that he is and does, dung, dung, just common dung!" 

Life brings them forth in anguish torturing pain, 
She treasures them beyond all treasures bought, 
Doth feed and clothe, guide, nurture and sustain 
And gives all strength that they be virtuous taught- 
All art and skill and craft is in them wrought 
And out of nature's chaos blind and stung 
They bring the cosmos Life has ever sought , 
These civic states, and high in heaven hung 
Prophetic dreams unto the future's thought. 
Then see it all in blindest slaughter flung; 
Mankind, his world and work, dung, dung, just common dung! 

Life brings them forth and Oh the joy divine 
When e'er is found a spirit strong and great, 
A thinker and an an actor with design 
To carve and build the nobler virtuous state! 
These souls are sent the world to elevate 
And bear the gifts to which the heavens clung; 
The geniuses still in the world create 
The worlds divine that are or e'er are sprung 
And lift mankind to meet and match and mate; 
But consternation upon our eyes is flung, 
The geniuses of life, dung, dung, just common dung! 

120 



Great man that crowns these travailing evolutions 
The man that thinks these systems of ripe thought, i 

That round him builds these glorious institutions 
Of social life and visions he has caught 
From heaven's thrones and unto mortals taught, 
Great man and all the greatness from him sprung, 
The hopes, and dreams with life and passion fraught. 
The nobleness that sorrow out has wrung. 
The honor and self-sacrifice so sought. 
The crest and crown that life has ever sung — 
Behold! Behold! Behold! "Dung, dung, just common dung!" 

Dung! Dung! This great humanity naught but dung! 
A product rich just brought to fertilize 
The barren earth and in the furrow flung 
Like vilest things whose swift decay supplies 
Another life that in earth's bosom lies! 
The very race from whom the heav'ns are sprung. 
The form divine from which the thinkers rise, 
The hearts and minds so grandly great when stung, 
The consciences with god within their eyes. 
The passion white and dreams so glorious sung — 
Behold! Behold! Pehold! "Dung, dung, just common dung!" 

Oh man. Oh man! When unto reason wed, 
When wisdom ripe and virtue in thee streams^, 
From out and into heaven thou art led 
And far behind and far before there gleams 
Faith, hopes and joys and sunlike, golden dreams. 
Then thought must think that this mortality 
Is but a mask that veils a master's schemes, 
And earth and birth a mere portality 
To being high and empire that redeems, 
For thou dost pass in high courtality 
To this vast universe, to glorious immortality. 

But when, Oh Man we see thee in thy strife, 
When thou art plunged and passionate in war. 
When thou art armed with lightning bolts and knife 
And slaying all, thyself as red in gore 
As butchery and slaughter ever wore. 
Then by despair Life is most deadly stung, 
V/isdom and truth are trampled as of yore, 
Hope is torn forth and far with curses flung, 
And night is poured on all celestial lore. 
Then Life and Time must sing as often sung; 
"Dung, dung, just common dung! Dung, dung, just common dung!' 

121 



"Nature, thy hand again put to the plow 
And shove the shear down to the granite rock! 
From end to end of ancient empires now 
Turn down the dead that all the ages shock! 
With them into that fertile bosom lock 
Some few ripe seeds of life's diviner state! 
With this rich cosmic fertilizer frock 
The vital germs and out of them create 
Another world whose human kind shall flock 
Around great Peace and harvest from our hate 
The rich millenial dreams the ages long to mate! 



DRAGONS. 

Within earth's passioned, palpitating breast 
A spirit lives and forms the plastic mass. 
Power, life and thought in all ephemera dressed 
Reveal some soul that these but faintly glass. 

At epic points she mounts the spheres 

To note the progress of the years; 

All, all the past unto the hour 

Doth pierce and test with lightning power, 

Forever looking to that light 

That sunlike shines upon the height. 
Blind life and thought, at times she doth not grope, 
Stands forth like Reason's soul and views the world with hope. 

Long ages past, when dinosaurian forms. 
Repulsive monsters of gigantic might 
Did people earth, and bred tempestuous storms 
Around them fierce as tropic stormy night, 

Upon the scene she rose to see 

What was and from it what might be. 

The earth was all one blinded brute! 

As was the root so was the fruit; 

Great nature's forms on land and flood 

Was all one strife, in death and blood. 
She sighed and sighed upon those births of time: 
"Just dragons, dragons, dragons! Just dragons in their slime!" 

Again she rose. Huge monsters had no place. 

Another form rose with erected shape. 

Just languaged and beginning to uncase 

Those mighty powers transforming man from ape. 

Fierce was he as the beasts of yore, 

As naked, hairy, hungry, sore. 

122 



She faintly smiled. There was a hope 
That out of this a soul might grope, 
And language nurse the thought and dream 
That in her far off heart did gleam; 
But sinking back she murmured her old rhyme: 
"Just dragons, dragons, dragons! Just dragons in their grime!" 

Again she rose. The shape erect had thought; 
Prophetic lights were shining in his eyes; 
Great cities rose; new arts were learned and taught 
And gardens, fields and flocks and herds they prize. 

She more than saw. It was old strife 

Though in the masquerades of life. 

Men fed on men. It was the past 

In new deceptive figures cast. 

Straight from the monsters of the flood 

The world had left a path of blood. 
She sighed and sighed and sorrow filled her rhyme: 
"Just dragons, dragons, dragons! Just dragons in their prime!" 

Again she rose. Earth was a royal sight, 

Ships, railroads, towers, schools, churches, light and thought. 

Great humans with a towering front and height 

On nature rode and vast inventions brought. 

'Twas our own age, the modern world 

With hope's prophetic flag unfurled, 

But Wealth and Liberty and Science 

Each other blast with death appliance. 

Some thirty millions mangled, dead, 

And life on blasting curses fed! 
She Avept and wept, slow sinking back in time: 
"Just dragons, dragons, dragons! Just dragons in their crime!" 



THE MAN WITH THE PUNCH 

The world is crying loud for men; 

The times do suffer need; 
Life looks abroad with anxious ken 

And calls the ancient breed. 
The earth is fat and full of things; 

Shake, shake the sleeping bunch! 
Spit on and kick him till upsprings 

The man that has the punch. 

The present prophesies an age 

Of might and man and deed; 
Great Life unto the daily page 

123 



A hero's dreams doth feed. 
The giants are in battle bound, 

The knotted passions crunch. 
The strong old fighter must be found. 

The man that has the punch. 

The preacher, editor and scribe, 

Mechanic, farmer, lord, 
Whoever leads this modern tribe 

Must bear the oldest sword. 
Earth is a chaos rich and rife, 

See nature on the hunch! 
And he alone can stand the strife, 

The man that has the punch. 

A man can always stand up straight. 

Can face the world and fight. 
On cowards Life doth send the weight 

Of avalanchic night. 
Forego the court and choose the camp; 

Feed on the hardest lunch. 
Oh covet nature's finest stamp, 

The man that has the punch! 

Feed heart and brain with dynamite; 

Hard double up your fist; 
Gods, angels, men and devils fight, 

Though scorned and howled and hissed. 
When man to man they dare to fight 

The dust the cowards munch 
But he is still the lord of life. 

The man that has the punch. 



THE SOLDIER'S STYLE 

"You don't like my style; 
'If you don't like my style 
Just stand out of my way,' 
As the cannon balls say 
To the soldier's file." 

'■No! I don't like such talk; 
It always makes me balk. 
A something in me lies 
That such talk bids arise." 

124 



*'Then, get right in my way; 
A granite man at bay 
Vv/'ith sword of keenest steel 
Who bids me come and feel. 
Is more my like, I say, 
Than standing from the way." 

*'Well, I don't want to fight; 
But you're both wrong and right. 
Ccme, let us reason, pray, 
About the right of way? 

''Friend! Sit there on the fence 
And lean your legs from thence 
To me safe side! Such men 
My soldiers would not ken 
From dogs. His is the way 
Who moves unto the day." 



A SONG OF PEACE 

I stood -upon the Campus square 

And watched the surging masses there. 

The toiler, trader, wise and fair, 

All full of life. 
Approaching then fair Peace I saw, 
The Soul that doth the ages draw 
And buildeth order, justice, law. 

In spite of strife. 

The gath'ring masses did admire 
Her figure, carriage, grace, attire, 
And loud applause from hearts of fire 

Did upward bound. 
High, high she towered; her hand outspread; 
The fleshly garments off she shed; 
A spirit scarred from toe to head 

Called silence round. 

"I am not such as oft I seem; 

Oft oft, am clothed as like a dream 

And called: 'The Hope of Life Supreme,' 

'Her long desire!' 
But underneath this raiment fair 
When inmost being is laid bare 
Ye see the scars that now I wear 

Of sword and fire." 

125 



"I was born out of all the times, 

All struggles, striies and wars and crimes. 

All ages, changes, countries, climes, 

To this estate. 
All honor, virtue, justice, law. 
Religion, reverence, faith and awe. 
All that I am and all I draw 

Strife did create. 

"All vict'ries oi the fading past. 
The social order round us cast 
And future conquests coming fast 

Are fruits of war. 
The ideals must engage in strife 
To find the virtues of their life 
And from their struggles high and rife 

Make soul from lore." 

"The martyrs are life's living seed; 
The patriots are a royal breed; 
'Tis sacrifice that life doth need 

And makes her great- 
He who beholds a nobler goal 
And for it 'gainst the greeds that roll 
Can plant a world defying soul 

Builds man and state." 

"So. oft 1 hear the voice of Life 

Pierce through all curse and noise and strife. 

Cut right in soul as like a knife: 

'Stand up and fight!' 
For country, friends and home and wife, 
Thy children, sires and thine own life 
Before the lightning sworded knife 

Stand up and fight!" 

"For liberty, the right to be 

The chainless, brandless, fearless, free. 

The glory men rejoice to see. 

Stand up and fight! 
For Liberty, the Queen divine 
Who made brutes men, men rich and fine 
And life a draught of godlike wine. 

Stand up and fight!" 

"War is a curse but peace is. curse, 
Far vaster, deadlier and worse. 
If in man's heart it doth impurse 
Devouring greed 

126 



That sings and prays and sighs for peace 
While selfishness has free release, 
And, though life's glory, doth decrease 
Man's royal breed." 

"Of all the cries man should abhor. 
Of all the dangers life deplore. 
Of all the curses that can sc^re 

This is the worst. 
The cry for 'Peace' at any price. 
The ignorant, insaae advise 
That wars increase aud maliie man thrice 

And more accursed!" 

*' 'Gainst Popes and presidents and kings. 

And Henry Fords, cabals and rings 

That want the peace and curse that clings 

Stand up and fight! 
Against this masquerading peace 
Thai selfishness and greed release 
And must this hell again increase 

Stand up and fight!" 

''Against the peace that bears the fruit 
That ripens from hell's deepest root, 
Transforming God and man to brute. 

Stand up and fight! 
Against the peace that leaves old war 
Still in the heart and holds the lore. 
Stained or unstained with murd'rous gore 

Stand up and fight!" 

"Give Life the peace that cuts the curse 
Out from the heart that doth it nurse 
And hurls it down the universe. 

Forever down! 
Give Life the peace that is her life 
That heals her wounds and stills her strife 
And gives her as the bridal wife 

That songs renown!" 

"Give, give the peace for which she prays 
Through sorrows, tears and sighs and lays, 
That sing and beckon down the days 

Beyond all strife! 
"Give, give the peace, the living peace 
The heav'ns alone to earth release, 
That time shall ever more increase 

With love and life!" 
127 



" 'Gainst doctrines arming friend and foe 
That Roosevelt and his followers sow 
For future harvests full of woe, 

Stand up and fight! 
'Gainst 'Preparation' that has nursed 
This greatest war the world has cursed. 
From which again new hells will hurst 

Stand up and fight!" 

"For that great, noble, longed-for state 
That Taft and Lowell would create, 
A court where nations meet and mate 

Stand up and fight! 
For that high international dream, 
That cosmic, climbing, saving scheme 
That makes a fact life's wish supreme , 

Stand up and fight!" 

"As long as this old globe shall roll 
Life must pay man and blood in toll; 
For every step to being's goal 

Pay out her best. 
But let her pay; the price is cheap 
If from the strug-gle she shall reap 
The larger purer soul asleep 

Within her breast-" 

"May Life grow wiser, free and great! 
May man with dreams and visions mate! 
May both be based on wisdom's state. 

And loined with right! 
May law, religion, learning, art 
Grow with and rule all mine and mart 
And nurse the soul, but never bart 

The power to fight." 

She ceased. Her wisdom silence bound 

A moment, then a thunder sound 

Did gird the speaker round and round. 

Did rise and fall. 
Then slow and calm the warrior Maid 
Again her peaceful robes arrayed 
And round the Campus slowly strayed 

Surveying all. 



128 



THE BATTLE OF BROOKLYN 

Oh Liberty I Oh Liberty! We turn 
With pleasure, pride and passioned exaltation 
To thee whenever thou dost rise and spurn 
Thy bitterness and bondage-degradation 
To battle for thy right and domination. 
Oh spirit great, most glorious and divine 
Of all the earth, thou art an inspiration 
To man and life. Thy passions pure as wine 
They gladly drink like powders of new creation. 
With tension tight the old, old fighter fine 
Comes up and with a rush jumps to the fighting line. 

I love the sounds of battle. I delight 
To see thy presence on the field. I leap 
To life and drink the recreating might 
Of glorious strife. I pant. I snort. I sweep 
Into the conflict and plunge into its deep. 
Is it a choice 'twixt Liberty and war? 
Then be it war! Still war unto the steep 
Of heav'n, and war, war, war down to the floor 
01 hell, and all between a mountain heap 
Of dead and oceans vast of living gore! 
'Tis Liberty or death forever, ever more. 

And thou, my Country! Liberty's best home! 
Republic great upon the rights of man! 
If thus the passions rise and swell and foam 
At all old tales of Freedom and her clan. 
Should not I rise and in the distance scan 
Thy trav'ling strife with Europe's old oppressions 
That did abhor the New World's higher plan? 
The fathers called for justice and redressions; 
Great Life was glad and did the passions fan ; 
In conference they discussed the prime transgressions, 
Then sudden, proud, erect, they rose with new possessions- 

These colonists along the fierce Atlantic 
Turned from the war with Nature, rough and wild. 
To face another. The tempest storms gigantic 
Swept o'er the land and darkness round them piled. 
They saw, a moment shrank, then reconciled 
The settler donned the soldier's uniform. 
Which was old Freedom's glowing soul that smiled, 
And calm defied the mighty fears that swarm. 
The frontier men came forth; the towns outfiled 
In strength; and thirteen states against the storm 
Did guard each fort and hill amid the lightnings warm. 

129 



While scorning far her colonists so raw 
At Bunker Hill the great delusion broke, 
And England with a sudden, fearful awe 
Came, staggered, fell 'mid thunder, fire and smoke. 
This sphere to new life-consciousness awoke 
And with a strength that prophesied the years 
Back on them flung the tyrant's cursed yoke 
And drove them blind with madness, shame and fears. 
As they reviewed a curse they did invoke. 
And measuring more the manhood of these spheres 
Did gather larger force and planned to fight their peers. 

New York was then, as now and long must be. 
The center of all hope and firm resistance. 
Within her streams far Washington did see 
The coming foe and Brooklyn sent assistance. 
Soon, soon they came- Far gath'ring in the distance 
A mighty fleet came on to awe the shores, 
To find a base and threaten the existence 
Of young life. The fortress from her scanty stores 
The center and the shore guards with insistence. 
But leaves far east a path with open doors; 
So scanty were her men and large her spreading floors. 

Wise Putman dressed the fort and southern height 
And half his strength to each he sorely broke. 
Each half again was stationed left and right 
To shore and center path to meet the stroke 
That Tyranny on Liberty did invoke. 
Ten thousand twice Howe landed on the shores 
Against our ten fierce rebels to his yoke. 
The Hessians kept the center-south and stores; 
Grant led the west with Highlanders of oak; 
Cornwallis quick the country round explores. 
Hears of Jamaica's path and its unguarded doors. 



The plans were sealed. On a deceptive night 
Lean strategy struck for Jamaica's road. 
In unseen, silent, secret, subtle flight 
The lengthy mass softly and slowly strode. 
Slow dragging forty cannons as their load. 
When morning broke the vet'rans gathered rank 
And officers and men with spirit glowed. 
On an unconscious foe they had the flank 
And vict'ry thus almost in full bestowed. 
With confidence the victory they drank 
And moved upon the lines along the wooded bank. 

130 



Twice, twice the force moved up to the attack, 
With spreading nets along tlie west and east 
Round Sullivan who kept the Bedford track 
And now too late awakes. The victors feast 
To see success so brilliantly increased. 
They draw the nets. They still reserve their fires. 
Now is the time. Upon them they released 
The heavy charge advantage always sires. 
The Hessians strong, a shamble-boughten beast. 
Signed from the north charged with the fierce desires 
That certain victory and long delay inspires. 

Disordered quick, the patriots saw all lost- 
Some fierce discharged their arms. The deadly walls 
Close round them without hope. Some boldly tossed 
The gauntlet down and courted death that calls. 
Then Sullivan, as those on whom fate falls 
Called swift retreat, but too late to avail. 
Some few broke off into the forest halls; 
The center held still fiercer fires assail; 
Some swear a curse on tyrants and their thralls; 
Then on the lines whose bayonets did them hail 
They rushed the heavy south to die or to prevail. 

The strength that dared this new untraveled world. 
Faced savages and felled the forests old. 
Their musket barrels seized and nature hurled 
Them fiercely on. Down on the Hessians rolled 
A desperate few, despising bayonets cold; 
Down, down they came and many instant fell. 
But some stood up and brute destructions sold 
Around. The elemental passions swell 
And mighty axelike strokes with swingings bold 
Sunk on that line. The super-human spell 
That falls on Freedom'si sons when driven to rebel. 

Rose up in them and drove them on like fire. 
Down sweeping with momentum from the height 
They plunged sheer in, like Samson blind in ire 
Smote left and right. The passions glowing white 
Did instant, desperate and remorseless smite 
Resistances that clog and close the path; 
But strengthened, numbered, interlocked with might 
The veterans stand. New life is in the bath 
Of blood when hope gulps down the sweet delight 
Of vict'ry. The force that battered nature hath 
Rose up within the foe and wrath encountered wrath. 

131 



still fighting on they pushed that center back 
And taught again these colonists could fight. 
Now they themselves returned upon their track, 
Then forv/ard plunged and swayed both left and right. 
As like a swollen river at its height, 
A gath'ring wave strikes plumb the curbing tall, 
When suddenly with passions foaming white 
The piled up stream sweeps down and does appal, 
So then that revolutionary might 

Broke through the strength that did around them wall; 
A remnant mere escapes and many prisoners fall. 



Meanwhile brave Sterling kept the path near shore 
And fed his men the wrongs that did them bite. 
'Twas time the first that Liberty e'er bore 
The organized Americans to fight, 
To fight for man, for independent right. 
Democracy and hopes that on her wait. 
With kindness cruel, assurance and delight 
She took the chance and scorned the loud debate, 
For such a strength a new world did invite. 
Against the men earth's strongest men can mate 
She set them up in line and on them laid her fate. 

The sun had started toward the hour of seven 
When all the fleet that lay along the shore 
Let loose her fiercest cannonades of levin 
And on the fields sent forth a thunder roar. 
Why? To hold all minds from that far eastern door. 
Then Grant and his strong Highlanders did break 
The tension tight and 'neath strategic lore 
Fierce opened fire. The outposts answer make 
And summons help against advances sore. 
They fought and fought and fell back to the stake 
As greater numbers pressed and their defence did rake. 

The posts their last position but gave way 
When Sterling with two thousand untried men 
Supported them and held the foe at bay; 
And more than held, for down on them unpen 
Resistances America till then 
Did never need, and never forth did call; 
But now against the strength of rock and glen 
Came up and stood a bulwarked breasted wall 
Of patriots keen that dared the fiercest ken 
Of veteran lines, resources, arms and all 
That raw, raw soldiers green with reason might appal. 

132 



They stood their ground 'gainst more than double force. 
And if some sank beneath the heavy fire 
A cliarge they sent upon such deadly course 
As Death himself the blast did sight and sire. 
They stopped advance; cooled quick the hot desire. 
Gave passion pause, taught them another lore, 
And drank the breath the battle doth inspire. 
The minute-men with musketry of yore 
Mark never missed but sent destructions dire: 
The loss they gave and added to the score 
As confidence and hope did new their bosoms store. 



Once fire baptized upon the battle front 
They seemed to rise to higher strength and height 
For every man would bear the burdened brunt 
And on the first and fiercest line would fight. 
Oft, often did the swift, impetuous might 
Sweep out of rank and in their very face 
Amid the shot on its uncertain flight 
Cast on their flag the crimson of disgrace. 
Those highlanders, great England's war delight, 
Found they were up against the ancient race. 
Against another man old nature's passions lace. 

Now on the west, then on the farthest east. 
And more than once against the center line 
They would mount up. The veterans more increased 
With numbers and with ordered valor fine 
Would drink the hope of victory like wine. 
But place and race and fire swift answering fire 
Did beat them down, down from that famed incline. 
Again disgrace and valor high aspire. 
Again they dare to mount with dark design, 
And once again a smaller host retire, 
And once again a shout that rises high and higher. 

The sun had climbed to eight, to nine, to ten. 
For four long hours the enemy they stay 
And drove them back, although the veteran men 
At every point did battle to make way. 
Resource, ambition numbers, desperate play 
Were stopped and stayed, were humbled, bent and bowed 
By Life's green hopes on that uncertain day. 
Nor was it strange the victors shouting loud 
Derision rolled and did the veterans bay- 
The strength of war, far famed, boasted and proud 
Went up against the stop, were stopped and stayed and cowed. 

133 



But hark, Oh hark! What is that distant sound? 
What strange report upon the patriots' flank? 
Along the height it sends an awe profound 
And stills the shouts along the victors' rank. 
All look behind. On them it casts a blank 
Astonishment and instant seems to slay 
The victor hopes that did that summit prank. 
Again there was confusion and dismay 
And their high hopes below the plummet sank. 
It was the sound of doom upon the day; 
The victors in their rear upon them sudden play. 

Cornwallis from his victory did run 
To strike the foes upon the shore and height. 
On Sterling brave as on brave Sullivan 
Was strategy and swift, resistless might. 
It were insane to stand up to the fight, 
And death to yield unto the prisoner's fate. 
It were a loss to Liberty, black night 
Unto the cause, on the new state a weight. 
And deep disgrace on Life's divinest right; 
Worst, worst of all, it were a murderous hate 

On his young soldiers true to pause or hesitate- 
Then was a brief and burning half an hour; 
A sacrifice and glory to behold; 
A passioned scene of valor, feat and power 
That Life and Time and poets rare have told. 
To save men to annihilation sold 
The Scot commands the most part to retreat. 
Whole he himself and kindred spirits bold 
Their courses keep o'er stream and marshy peat. 
They took their stand 'gainst odds most manifold, 
A chosen band in a position meet; 

'Twas crimson, crimson life and passion white with heat. 

Quick action then; the British poured in fire; 
There was a rush, an elemetnal shock; 
Old England and America in ire 
Shook to the deep, in deadly conflict lock. 
The globes of man down to the granite rock 
Rose up and fought. Shame, anger, fear and might 
That chosen few most ruthless did unfrock. 
Fierce poured the shot; swords struck the living sight; 
But there they stood and did all progress block. 
With many slain, the living fiercer fight 
As their companions crossed the stream with blood bedight. 

134 



For half an hour the fugitives passed o'er; 
For half an hour the English on them dash; 
For half an hour the handful 'gainst them bore; 
For half an hour shot fell and bayonets slash. 
Though shot and hewn with many a fearful gash 
They fought and fought upon the piling dead- 
Into the teeth that did upon them gnash 
These heroes struck with passions fierce and red 
And kept the stream through which their comrades splash. 
Though some sank down into the watery bed 
Most crossed the marshy creek and to the fortress sped. 



Again, again, again, and once again 
They did repulse Cornwallis from the way. 
Though every time a higher toll of men 
Upon the field as dead and dying lay. 
But every time they instant did obey 
And fewer few rush to defend the place 
And dare the guns the British on them play. 
Time and again they dared the veterans face 
And on their own the slaughter fierce did stay. 
Even the foes admired the hero race 
Of that vicarious fight and sacrificial grace. 

Of that fierce, final, pathway-blocking strife 
Oh give the honors where they most belong! 
From Maryland a regiment of life 
Round Sterling stood against the victors strong. 
Her fresh green hopes, a generous youthful throng, , 
Stood up with him as seasoned soldiers fight. 
Took blindest odds and dared the mighty wrong- 
Though fiercest fires and bayonets did them smite. 
But though from them, there rose a glorious song 
Of battle front, of valor, fame and mighty 
It could not save the day from dark defeat and blight. 

Defeat! Defeat! Cruel, cruel. Oh cruel defeat! 
The first stand-up for independent state, 
The "Declaration Great" and life replete 
With liberty and this decree of fate 
That strength and hope almost annihilate! 
Defeat! Defeat! The first high passions white 
With mighty dreams of glorious estate 
And victories that doth the eye delight. 
Before the strength of tyranny and hate 
Stormed, stormed and drove from off the double height 
And victors and their dreams plunged into darkest night! 

135 



Defeat! Defeat! Cruel, cruel, Oh cruel defeat! 
Life's bosom bare, warm, bleeding, pierced and torn. 
And to her dying lips with dregs replete 
A cup that death hath from her presence sworn, 
And falleth back upon her bed of thorn! 
Defeat, defeat, defeat and brutal plunder 
Fed on thy life and tramped ye down in scorn. 
While darkness black and lightning flash and thunder 
Broke on the cause as storms upon the morn! 
Oh Time and Life! How is it ye can sunder 
Frcm virtue its desert and plunge both down and under? 

Defeat! Defeat! Cruel, cruel, Oh cruel defeat! 
Oh Liberty, there's no defeat like thine! 
There is no cause that makes man more complete. 
Sets us on fire and feeds celestial wine. 
And then to drink the dregs and dross of brine! 
How happy hence, thrice happy are the brave 
Death wrappeth in a soldier's glory fine 
And flowers immortal plants upon his grave! 
How infinite the patriot's rest divine 
And memory blest when man is but a slave 
And Liberty and Life his mortal pathways pave! 

'Tis not in man, in demons or in gods 
To breast the force and win against the fates; 
But when for Liberty they take the odds 
Impassioned song their memory celebrates. 
No victory sustains and satiates 
Life's hungry heart on its immortal quest. 
But virtue high that fierce annihilates 
All tyranny, and in the bosom blest 
Great Liberty eternal consecrates; 
For life in such is ever self-possessed 
And without such insane however highly dressed. 

And such were ye on that disastrous day! 
The spirit of thy life was high and free. 
And prophecy and splendor round did play; 
But all abroad, all down the earth we see 
Life ever slain by Time's tyrannic "Me." 
Resources, numbers, vet'rans, arms and skill 
Are luling powers where nature's battles be. 
Though purer fires the nobler spirits fill 
Great nature knows no virtue and no plea. 
The patriot's, prophet's, martyr's blood doth spill; 
The beasts and foes of life possess and crown the hill. 

136 



But there are worlds within the world of man 
And life is oft the opposite it seems. 
A vict'ry and a victor's larger plan 
Oft with a curse and vast destruction teems. 
Out of defeat, out of her torturing dreams 
Another man, another virtue springs 
That moulds the soul to far diviner schemes. 
The blinded world that blind forever swings 
Is full of contradiction and extremes. 
That which we wish is always that which stings; 
That which we most lament that which the sweetest sings. 

Death and defeat, shame, bitterness and scorn. 
Ye were the seed that mighty Time did fling 
Into the furrow. The harvest to be born 
Was riper far than poets dared to sing 
When dream and song soar on archangel wing; 
For out of ye sprung Liberty immoi"tal, 
A state where man is greater than a king, 
A greatness, magnificence and courtal 
Majesty of life, a glorious ring 
Unto the generations o'er the portal. 
And high prophetic hopes above the dreams of mortal. 

Ye were the sacrifice by which we live; 
Thy blood was shed man's right to full redeem; 
Thy hate and love unto us thou didst give 
And now it flows in this strange mingled stream. 
The memory and the ancient virtue seems 
At times run out, but there are other times 
A spirit wakes and with sublimest dreams 
High, high above the world in passion climbs. 
Full, full of rich and ripe prophetic schemes — 
It is yourselves still mounting to your primes 
Where Liberty and Life eternal music chimes. 

Now Liberty and Life are throned sublime 
In this new sphere, and their enchanting song 
Is singing hope unto the hosts of time. 
And in the strain are notes so passioned strong 
They fire the soul and bear it swift along 
Till man is lost and finds himself in line 
When ye around great Liberty did throng 
And poured for her life's consecratest wine. 
Immortal mortals, enthroned above all wrong! 
Ye are the men Life loves to call "divine;" 
Forever more your forms upon her eyes shall shine- 

137 



Ye fought and fell. Now this expanding nation, 
This dominating power for coming ages, 
This courage, conflict, conquest and creation. 
Though spellbound as the future high engages. 
Whene'er they pause and read the golden pages 
Which we have wrought, the history so inspires 
The glorious strife within the bosom rages 
And honors that all heaven still desires 
Are hung on ye unto the endless ages. 
We are the sons of most immortal sires 
And in our bosom yet the fathers' glowing fires. 

Ye Stars and Stripes! Redemption of the night! 
Defense and hope to all the bondaged world! 
Though vastly changed unto the outward sight 
'Twas here your folds were first with joy unfurled. 
Here planted firm; here fiercely on thee hurled 
The foes; here the raw colonists despised 
Around thee fought and with the battle swirled; 
Here was the hour that thy fresh folds baptized 
In blood and death; here thou wast blindly whirled 
From off the field and with defeat surprised; 
So crown, Oh crown these heights so grand memorialized! 

And you, ye spirits of these thirteen states 
Stand up again in your colonial guise; 
Though all is changed by that which new creates 
Ye still survive and higher still must rise! 
Behold the rich wide hemisphere that lies 
Beneath the skies ye made forever free, 
And this new race of vast gigantic size 
Wage other wars with strife and tyranny! 
Look forth, look forth! Stretch your expanding eyes 
To north and south and far unto the sea! 
Had ye such dreams of state as now before ye flee? 

Ye later soldiers! Ye hosts that shake the globe! 
Ye mod'rns v/hose machines unmake as man! 
Whose monster guns and science powers disrobe 
The world's high civilizations as we scan, 
Behold this breed of nature's oldest plan! 
One round of shot; a forward rush; then hand 
To hand the great old struggle they began. 
Against the wall of fate the patriot band 
Would plant themselves before oppression's clan: 
"Come on! Come on! We'll take the odds and stand." 
Such soldiers here have fought. Show us a better brand! 

138 



Oh city vast I Beneatli thy very feet they fought. 
But time and change obliterate all trace. 
The hero souls that plain and common wrought 
Scarce memory leaves to their succeeding race. 
T^ause on thy course! With memory now repace 
Thy country's lore from thy far pioneers! 
A change! Surprise! What crimsons so thy face?. 
That yon? A battle field- It plows the spheres 
Of man! Into it! Thy fathers there embrace 
Their fathers who have fallen with the years. 
Break out, Oh city, break, and shake the earth with cheers! 

Great Uncle Sam doth on the Eagle ride 
And each alike for freedom ever strives. 
At every shrine though change and progress hide 
They open up the lore that memory hives. 
Upon these heights and shores a something rives 
The present from the past. The glorious strife 
Is lived again. The remembering Eagle drives 
Against the foe with elemental life, 
And Uncle Sam tears off the oppressor's gyves 
From his young soul. A flame and lightning knife 
Lead on the fiercest line against oppressions rife. 



And ye, ye cosmopolitans of power 
That master, march and rule the course of time, 
Moulding the globe with scientific dower, 
Like and unlike the World-Soul's dreams sublime, 
Ye far extremes to this man's scale and clime 
Come face to face! Ye are the son and sire. 
His world is past and is to thee a mime; 
Thy world is here; both it and thou inspire; 
But under all is manhood pure and prime- 
Art thou a man? Respond unto the fire 
That planted, fed and fanned thy best divine desire! 

And thou, thou age and coming age of splendor, 
Of wealth and lore, magnificence and power! 
Exalted Life with glorious train attender 
No dreamer dreamed when dream looked from her tower 
Forget thou not the first immortal hour 
When they fierce fought tO' set the whole world free, 
Slew old chaotic monsters that devour. 
And struck this plan as prophets only see. 
Forget thou not what did them most endower 
And is the best thy fathers gave to thee 
And let a brighter flame unto their memory be! 

139 



Upon mine eyes there streams a cloud of vision; 
It sweeps across all majesty and splendor. 
The mighty world feels something of derision 
As the vast mass swings round her as attender. 
Allegiance swear and blind throng as defender. 
'Tis Liberty, great Liberty divine! 
And round are guards that never knew surrender, 
The real "Old Guard," best types of life's design. 
Renew their oath and service ever tender. 
Behold the breed ! Now ever on her line 
The fighters, founders, fathers with her own glories shine. 

Oh City, State, great Nation and the World, 
There still is hope where e'er such virtues be. 
Though man and life by tyrants new are whirled 
The future high doth beckon unto thee. 
Stand up! Stand up! Be strong but be more free! 
The free alone life's larger doors can ope. 
What now we are, whatever great we see 
Is but the fruit of Freedom's deadly cope. 
Feed thou the flame! Pledge life to liberty! 
Line with the few! Stand up on plain and slope! 
Fight, fight for Liberty and give the future hope! 



BELGIUM 

In this vast day of mighty strife 
When heav'n and earth and man and life 
And nature with resources rife 
Wield against each the lightning knife 
Keep safe 

The mem'ry of a noble state. 
Small, trampled down, despised by hate, 
But chosen as if chose by Fate 
To keep life's hope inviolate, 
Belgium. 

Who dared time's brutal giant chief, 
A robber state, colossal thief. 
To honor lost, to hell a fief? 
Who dared her past the world's belief? 
Belgium. 

Who saved the hope of this wide world, 
The flag that Liberty unfurled? 

140 



Who stemmed the storm when wrath was hurled 
That life and man and all imperiled? 
Belgium. 

Who held old Europe's freedom gate, 
Held brutal hordes of savage hate? 
Defied a thousand times their state 
And gave the world an hour of fate? 
Belgium. 

Who stayed a iiell ambitious power 
Whose hungry greed would all devour, 
A strength that did to heaven tower? 
Who stayed her one short, vital hour? 
Belgium. 

As noble as the dauntless Three 
Preserved old Rome so Europe ye. 
Ye showed the world types of the free 
That feeds the earth her life and glee, 
Belgium. 

As brave and fearless, strong and wise 
As time e'er saw and man must prize. 
Your last born soul did instant rise 
And on the fiercest front line^ dies. 
Belgium. 

Though ye are slain, your land a dearth 
Now almost blotted from the earth, 
Thy state has now another birth, 
An ideal of immortal worth; 
Belgium. 

As long as men shall sing the song 
Of free souls in their passion strong 
Triumphant might shall feed the throng 
To see thy right before their wrong, 
Belgium. 

Forever at the world great Y 
Where free men for the world did die 
A monument soars to the sky 
And from it lightning strikes the eye, 
Belgium. 

From here and hence round every coast, 
Around the shrine men honor most. 

141 



The free enfranchised, brandless host 
The glories of thy name shall boast; 
Belgium. 

Then let the temples of old fame. 
From portal, dome and tablet flame 
The splendors of that glorious name 
The world hosts hence greet with acclaim, 
Belgium. 

At each high season of great time 
When nations chant in songs sublime 
The DOwers that nursed them to their prime 
One name supreme shall ride the chime, 
Belgium. 

If when the allies win their aim 
The victors crown thee not with fame 
The world's great soul will write in flame 
Their infinite eternal shame. 
Belgium. 



TO MY SOLDIER SONGS 

Go, my "Soldier Songs," to the soldier's life, 
To the struggles fierce of remorseless strife! 
'Tis a world of greed and a course of war 
With a daily bath deep in tears and gore. 

It is self and greed that is life's chief end; 
On the sharpest sword she doth still depend. 
And the life of man though life's highest prize. 
Is as cheap as dirt ihat beneath her lies. 

What is then is song in the mighty curse 
Though the camp and sword doth its being nurse 
When the powers that drive the eternal urge 
Mingles man and life in an endless dirge? 

Know your own defects are your own worst foes 
And your own best friend in your own heart glows! 
Know the elements deal with the elements true, 
Give an instant death or the honor due. 

Go, my "Soldier Songs" to the soldier strife! 
If ye feed the camp with a throb of life 

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Ye will be a joy and will go your way 
As the victor.s go from the battle fray. 

Go, my "Soldier Songs!" If ye cannot feed 
The impassioned heart of the soldier breed, 
There is no debate, ye deserve the fate. 
Ye are only dung for the songs they wait. 



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